As a member of the cross country team I have gotten the opportunity to know quite a few upper classmen. In many classes seniors are required to complete an experiment or senior project. So the past few weeks I've been recieving e-mails from the seniors on the team asking for participants in their experiments or studies. Thus, I have acted as the lab rat for 3 studies.
The first one I had the most fun with. I was put on a treadmill with my nose clamped and my mouth hooked up to a tube so that my carbon dioxide output could be measured (much like Lance Armstrong in this picture). The speed on the treadmill was kept consistent while the incline w
as raised every minute. Every minute or so my finger was pricked (while I was running) and blood was collected so that the level of lactic acid in my blood could be measured. When I was finished I had some pretty cool blood splatters on my shorts, but hey, poking and prodding is all part of being a lab rat!
It was hard work, especially toward the end when the incline was highest, but it was really cool. I got a huge kick out of feeling like the athletes on the Gatorade commercials that are working hard on the bicycles or running on the treadmills with multi-colored sweat pouring out of them. I would love to work at an institute like that or be the athlete that is tested. That would be sweet.
The other 2 experiments that I participated in were psychology experiments. The first one was testing how different types of music affect how well students are able to concentrate. While I was supposed to be reading two articles from the ACT exam, Black Eyed Peas music was played in the room. After we had 5 minutes to read the articles, we took a little break and then had to take a quiz over what we had read.
I am a person that likes to study in complete silence so I could barely concentrate on what I was supposed to be reading! It was amazing how much the lyrics distracted me. Some students are always listening to their I-pods while studying, but for me that would be very hard. I comprehended very little while I was reading thanks to the distracting music. Another section in the experiment listened to Mozart music and the final section didn't have any music at all. I am curious to see how great a difference the type of music made in the quiz scores.
The third and final experiment I helped with had to do with recognition of faces where the eyes and mouths were turned upside-down. We were shown 100 slides with two faces on each slide. Some of the faces were oriented right-side up, upside-down, or horizontally. We then had to say whether face A, B, both, or neither had inverted features. Once I got the hang of it the test was not too difficult. Here's an example of 2 faces with regular eyes and mouths and 2 with inverted features.
I enjoyed participating in the experiments and helping out my teammates. Now I have an idea of what will be expected of me when I am a senior. I also enjoyed the challenge of seeing how well I could perform in the different testing conditions. For the next week, though, my lab rat skills will be put on hold as I go home for Thanksgiving break. I'll get rejuvinated and be ready to push through the final 3 weeks of the semester, just as I would as a lab rat, giving my best effort through the completion of the experiment.
The first one I had the most fun with. I was put on a treadmill with my nose clamped and my mouth hooked up to a tube so that my carbon dioxide output could be measured (much like Lance Armstrong in this picture). The speed on the treadmill was kept consistent while the incline w
as raised every minute. Every minute or so my finger was pricked (while I was running) and blood was collected so that the level of lactic acid in my blood could be measured. When I was finished I had some pretty cool blood splatters on my shorts, but hey, poking and prodding is all part of being a lab rat!It was hard work, especially toward the end when the incline was highest, but it was really cool. I got a huge kick out of feeling like the athletes on the Gatorade commercials that are working hard on the bicycles or running on the treadmills with multi-colored sweat pouring out of them. I would love to work at an institute like that or be the athlete that is tested. That would be sweet.
The other 2 experiments that I participated in were psychology experiments. The first one was testing how different types of music affect how well students are able to concentrate. While I was supposed to be reading two articles from the ACT exam, Black Eyed Peas music was played in the room. After we had 5 minutes to read the articles, we took a little break and then had to take a quiz over what we had read.
I am a person that likes to study in complete silence so I could barely concentrate on what I was supposed to be reading! It was amazing how much the lyrics distracted me. Some students are always listening to their I-pods while studying, but for me that would be very hard. I comprehended very little while I was reading thanks to the distracting music. Another section in the experiment listened to Mozart music and the final section didn't have any music at all. I am curious to see how great a difference the type of music made in the quiz scores.
The third and final experiment I helped with had to do with recognition of faces where the eyes and mouths were turned upside-down. We were shown 100 slides with two faces on each slide. Some of the faces were oriented right-side up, upside-down, or horizontally. We then had to say whether face A, B, both, or neither had inverted features. Once I got the hang of it the test was not too difficult. Here's an example of 2 faces with regular eyes and mouths and 2 with inverted features.
I enjoyed participating in the experiments and helping out my teammates. Now I have an idea of what will be expected of me when I am a senior. I also enjoyed the challenge of seeing how well I could perform in the different testing conditions. For the next week, though, my lab rat skills will be put on hold as I go home for Thanksgiving break. I'll get rejuvinated and be ready to push through the final 3 weeks of the semester, just as I would as a lab rat, giving my best effort through the completion of the experiment.
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