Respiratory System Case Passport, BIO 304 Module 13

One case. Three panels. Drawn by hand.

This week you build a single three-panel case drawing on plain paper. No printer needed. Panel one is the normal anatomy and physiology, panel two is what goes abnormal in the case, and panel three is the treatment, drawn onto the same pathway so you can see exactly where each treatment acts and how. This screen is your coach: it walks you through each panel one step at a time. Given, not Googled. The learning happens in your hand.

Your case this week

The wheeze that will not quit

Alex, 17, runs track and has asthma. On a smoky wildfire afternoon Alex is halfway through practice when the chest goes tight, a wheeze starts on every breath out, and the air just will not come. By the time the coach calls for help, Alex is speaking in three-word bursts, leaning forward with hands on knees, shoulders lifting with each breath. You will draw this case in three panels, and by the end you will be able to explain it start to finish, including where every treatment plugs in.

How to work it

Draw the three panels in order. Each one is a chapter of Alex's case: normal, then abnormal, then treatment. When you finish you own one hand-made case poster that is worth far more before an exam than any typed notes.

What your paper looks like

Vertical panels

Horizontal rows

Set up one sheet either way: 1 Normal, 2 Abnormal, 3 Treatment. Pick whichever fits, but all three panels go on one page.

Hand-drawn, one page · this will be checked

Draw every panel yourself, on paper, with pencil, pen, or colored pencils. Not on an iPad or any device, and not with AI. All three panels must go on one page, and you upload that single page. One page only, and more than one page loses points, because following directions is part of the grade. Your drawings will be checked, so make them your own.

Why you, specifically

This course feeds a lot of fields: EMS and paramedic programs, radiologic technology, and mortuary and funeral service, among others. Every panel carries a Field note connecting the anatomy to what you will actually see in your work.

Learning objectives

Draw the normal respiratory pathway: the airway tree, breathing mechanics, and gas exchange at the alveolus.
Diagram what goes wrong in an asthma attack: the abnormal anatomy and physiology of an obstructive airway.
Research one first-line drug for the case, show its mechanism in plain language, and demonstrate its impact by drawing a before and after, not by writing.
Distinguish rescue treatment from controller treatment.
Narrate the whole case, normal to abnormal to treatment, from your own drawing.

Estimated time2 to 4 hours. Panel one is the biggest build. Panels two and three go faster once the pathway is drawn.

Materials neededOne sheet of paper, with all three panels on that single page. A pen or pencil and two or three colors, hand-drawn only (no tablets, no AI). Plus the Module 13 videos, slides, reference sheets, and your textbook figures.

What you submitOne clear photo of one page with all three panels on it, one page only (more than one page loses points). Be ready to tell Alex's whole case from your drawing.

Anatomy and physiologyPanel one carries the normal structure and function; panel two the abnormal structure and function; panel three the treatment mechanism. Both anatomy and physiology are graded.

What you are making: the normal pathway, from air moving in through open airways to oxygen crossing into the blood and riding to the tissues.

Alex's case · the baseline

Before anything goes wrong, draw how Alex's airways and lungs are supposed to work on a normal training day. This is the normal that every abnormal finding in panel two is measured against.

Field note

Knowing the normal airway cold is why a medic can hear when it is obstructed, and why a rad tech reads a normal chest film before ever reading an abnormal one. This panel is your normal.

Set up your paper: Divide a large sheet into three panels on one page, vertical columns or horizontal rows. Head the first panel NORMAL. You will build the breathing pathway from the mouth down to the tissues.

Step 1 of 6

Draw the airway tree top to bottom: nose and mouth → pharynx → larynx → trachea (with C-shaped cartilage rings) → bronchi → bronchioles (smooth muscle, no cartilage) → alveoli. Bracket the top part as the conducting zone (moves air) and the alveoli as the respiratory zone (gas exchange). Mark this step done
Draw one inhale: the diaphragm contracts and flattens, the ribs lift, the chest volume increases, and the pressure inside drops below atmospheric, so air flows in. Add an arrow "air in." Note that a normal exhale is passive elastic recoil. Mark this step done
Zoom in on one alveolus with a capillary beside it, separated by the thin respiratory membrane. Draw O2 diffusing from the alveolus into the blood and CO2 diffusing from the blood into the alveolus. Label it "gas exchange by diffusion, high to low partial pressure." Mark this step done
Draw a red blood cell in the capillary picking up oxygen: about 98 percent binds to hemoglobin, a little dissolves in plasma. Add a small oxyhemoglobin curve (an S shape) and label "hemoglobin carries oxygen to the tissues." Mark this step done
Draw a cross-section of a normal bronchiole: open, wide lumen, relaxed smooth muscle, thin wall, no mucus. Label it "open airway equals low resistance, easy airflow." This is the spot panel two will attack. Mark this step done
Write the one-line normal summary: air moves through open airways to the alveoli, oxygen diffuses into the blood and rides hemoglobin to the tissues, and exhaling is passive. Mark this step done

I drew this panel by hand with pencil, pen, or colored pencils, not on a device or with AI.

What you are making: the same pathway, marked to show exactly what goes wrong in Alex's attack. Use a second color for every abnormal finding.

Alex's case · mid-attack

Now it is Alex, mid-attack on the track. Redraw the pathway and mark every place it breaks, with the bronchiole as the center of the story.

Field note

Leaning forward on the knees, using neck and shoulder muscles, and speaking in short bursts are the field signs that an asthma attack is severe. And a wheeze that suddenly goes silent is worse, not better: it can mean too little air is moving to make the sound.

Set up your paper: Head the second panel ABNORMAL. Redraw the pathway spine, then mark the failures in a second color.

Step 1 of 6

Zoom in on a bronchiole and draw the three things happening at once in an asthma attack: the smooth muscle squeezing tight (bronchospasm), the airway wall swelling (inflammation), and mucus plugging the lumen. Label it "airway narrows, resistance climbs." Mark this step done
Show what narrow airways do to airflow: air gets in but is hard to push out, so it gets trapped. Draw the lungs and ribs over-inflated. Label it "obstructive, worst on exhale, FEV1 over FVC drops." Mark this step done
Draw Alex working to breathe: leaning forward, neck and shoulder (accessory) muscles pulling, a wheeze on exhale. Label the wheeze "air squeezing through narrowed airways." Mark this step done
Follow it to the alveolus: less fresh air reaches the gas-exchange surface, so less O2 crosses into the blood and the oxygen saturation starts to fall. Mark the oxyhemoglobin point dropping and label it "hypoxemia if this continues." Mark this step done
Add the trigger: wildfire smoke and allergens set off mast cells, releasing histamine and inflammation that started the whole thing. Label it "the trigger lit the fuse." (This is the same mast cell from the immune passport.) Mark this step done
Write the one-line abnormal summary: the airways constrict, swell, and clog, resistance climbs, air is trapped on exhale, and oxygen delivery falls. Mark this step done

I drew this panel by hand with pencil, pen, or colored pencils, not on a device or with AI.

What you are making: you research one first-line drug for this case, show what it does in plain terms, and prove its impact on the pathway with a before-and-after drawing, pictures, not paragraphs.

Alex's case · the fix

Now open Alex's airways. Every treatment works at a specific spot on the pathway you just drew. Show where, and show how.

Field note

Albuterol is the single most-used breathing drug on an ambulance, and wildfire smoke season fills California ERs with exactly this attack. Knowing where each drug acts is knowing why it works.

Set up your paper: Head the third panel TREATMENT. Lightly redraw the bronchiole and the pathway, then attach each treatment where it acts.

Step 1 of 6

Your first-line drug for an asthma attack is the rescue inhaler, a short-acting beta-agonist (albuterol). Write only its name on your panel, then look up in plain terms what it does. Skip the nerdy receptor details. Mark this step done
Capture the mechanism as a plain-language idea, not a paragraph. In three to five words or a small symbol: "relaxes the airway muscle." That is all the text this drug gets. Mark this step done
Draw the drug acting at its exact spot: an arrow from the inhaler to the bronchiole smooth muscle you drew clenched in panel two. Mark this step done
Demonstrate the impact with a picture, not words. Draw the bronchiole twice, side by side: BEFORE (narrow, muscle clenched, a thin trickle of air) and AFTER (wide open, muscle relaxed, a full stream of air), with an arrow between them for the drug. Let the two drawings show the change. Mark this step done
Follow the impact down the pathway with drawing only: with the airway open, show more air reaching the alveoli and the oxygen climbing back up (move the oxyhemoglobin point up). Arrows and marks, no sentences. Mark this step done
The real test. Tell Alex's whole case out loud, and when you reach treatment, say in plain language how albuterol works and point to your before-and-after drawing. Write the single hardest sentence to say from memory, and re-draw that spot. Mark this step done

I drew this panel by hand with pencil, pen, or colored pencils, not on a device or with AI, and told the whole case out loud from my three panels.

Why you draw it, and how to use it

Why drawing it works

Drawing from memory is retrieval practice: pulling the answer out of your own head is what builds lasting memory, far more than rereading.
Turning words into a picture is dual coding, so you store each idea twice and can find it faster on exam day.
One running case ties it together, so you remember it as a story, not a pile of facts.
Redrawing the part you got wrong is the effortful practice that actually sticks.

How to get the most out of it

Draw each panel from memory first. A little struggle is the point, do not peek.
Keep the video and your book open. Pause, look things up, and add what you missed.
Say the case out loud from your own drawing. If you can tell it without notes, you know it.
Go back and redraw whatever was hardest to say.

How AI helps, and how it does not

Good uses: ask it to quiz you after you draw, or to explain a term you are stuck on.
Not a shortcut: it cannot draw your page or tell your case for you. If it does the work, you skip the exact thinking the exam will test.
The drawing in your own hand is the assignment, and the one thing AI cannot hand back to you.

The answer key is your self-check

It stays locked until after the due date, so there is nothing to copy while you work.
Once it unlocks, open Show me the target on each panel and compare it to what you drew.
It is not a picture to trace. It is a short checklist of what your panel should show, so you can catch what you missed and fix it.