Delene Huggins
Portland High School
Standard Biology

Dr.Kong Chen  Energy Balance Lab

The research being done at my lab was to determine if the new moble units for calculating energy expenditure, (calories burned,) were as efficient as the calorimetry room.  People were hooked up to several different machines and asked to do a battery of physical fitness tests both inside and outside.  The data collected from this was compared to the data received when the same person stayed for 24 hours inside a special room that calculated the amount of oxygen the person took in and the amount of carbon dioxide the person expended while doing exercises inside the room.

Because of a lack of participants in the room, the teacher I was working with and myself were given the opportunity to conduct our own experiment using some VERY expensive equipment.  The people we worked with also helped us by being our "subjects".  It was really neat, and I learned how a true research scientist would conduct a true experiment.  We even had to come up with a hypothesis for our exeriment, perameters, problem solve when the equipment wouldn't run right, correlate machinery, and all the other things scientists do.  After the experiment was complete we had to analyze our data and come up with our conclusion.  I really enjoyed it, even though there was quite a bit of "down time".  The people I worked with were fantastic, and my 11 year old daughter even got to participate in the official study my group was conducting.  She enjoyed it so much that now my 16 year old is considering doing it.

With reagards to my curriculum, I have taken what I learned and am doing my module on exercise, healthy eating and body metabolism.  It's a rather large module, but I think it's pretty great.