CINCINNATI, Ohio (AP) -- Sixth-graders in a southwest Ohio school are learning a technique used to help people who are choking, and organizers eventually hope to roll out the new curriculum at the state or national level.

The course teaches the procedure known as the Heimlich maneuver, which is used to prevent suffocation when a person's airway becomes blocked by some object. The course enables teachers to combine that instruction with lessons in related subjects, such as science.

Dr. Henry Heimlich has been credited with developing the technique in 1974. It involves abdominal thrusts applied to a choking victim to lift the diaphragm and force air from the lungs to dislodge any object.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports Heimlich estimates the maneuver has saved more than 100,000 choking victims in the United States since 1974.