Your Nose Takes Turns: teacher key

Boogers and Snot, grade 10 edition, written for 10th grade. Right now one of your nostrils is doing most of the work, and in a few hours the other will take over. Follow the evidence on the nasal cycle, the cilia that sweep mucus and the experiments that show what mucus does.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What did the 1977 Mayo Clinic study find?
   • 72 percent of 50 people had a clear nasal cycle (answer)
   • Everyone had a two-hour nasal cycle
   • Only 7 percent had a nasal cycle
2. Which part of the brain controls the nasal cycle?
   • The stomach lining
   • The hypothalamus (answer)
   • The sinuses
3. Why do people usually not notice the nasal cycle?
   • It only happens during sleep
   • Cilia hide it
   • Total resistance to airflow stays fairly constant as the sides trade places (answer)
4. What did the MIT dish test show about mucins and bacteria?
   • Mucins stopped the bacteria from sticking and clumping (answer)
   • Mucins fed the bacteria
   • Mucins turned bacteria green
5. A person has sneezing that comes on suddenly and lasts as long as pollen is around. Which fits best?
   • A cold
   • Hay fever (answer)
   • A nosebleed
6. In this passage, what is an allergen?
   • A kind of cilium
   • A pain medicine
   • Something that triggers an allergy (answer)

Words

• hypothalamus: brain control center
• histamine: allergy chemical
• mucins: mucus gel proteins
• surfactants: slippery film makers
• allergen: allergy trigger