Challenge Team Interim Report

Team Number: 036 School Name: Shiprock High School Area of Science: Medicine and Health Project Title: Asthma

My project is on asthma. Asthma is chronic disorder in which there are attacks of wheezing, coughing, difficulty in breathing, and suffocating feeling, usually caused by an allergy. Asthma is a problem among all races. There are more than 40 million people in the United States that have this lung disease. About 5 to 6 million are children. It makes the sides of the airways in your lungs inflamed or swollen all the time. The airways are also hyperactive or highly sensitive to triggering or irritating factors. When a trigger, such as tobacco smoke, enters the airways, the body reacts out of proportion to the seeming threat. The muscles surrounding the airways constrict, or go into spasms, producing the feeling of tightness in the chest. At the some time, the bronchi themselves swell, narrowing the airway, and produce thick mucus, further clogging airways. Air gets trapped in the constricted airways, and the person is often able to inhale, but not to fully exhale. The person coughs, wheezes, and gasps for breath. In the midst type of asthma attack, coughing may be the only a bit of tightness and have some wheezing. Therefore, I will keep in touch with the Northern Navajo Medical Center. They will provide me with more information on the lung disease.

Team Members

Team Mail

• Cassandra Dick

Sponsoring Teachers

• V. Noble
• M. Hines

Project Advisor(s)