Students Visit Hyperbaric Chamber to Gather Research for Annenberg Science Symposium
EA's Annenberg Science Symposium Club presented its findings on hyperbaric oxygen therapy during this year's symposium on Thursday, April 25.
"Each year, the Annenberg Science Symposium tries to choose an interesting topic to expand and broaden knowledge and interest in the medical field," said Alyssa Sterner '24. "I proposed hyperbaric therapy for our project topic because I have personal experience undergoing the treatment and knew it would probably be interesting to people as it is somewhat obscure and out of the ordinary."
The chambers offer a pressurized environment in which patients receive pure oxygen to promote healing. The treatment is most commonly used for burn wounds, gangrene, carbon monoxide poisoning, infections, and decompression sickness.
As part of their research, students traveled to the University of Pennsylvania's Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber in March. "Under the guidance of Dr. David Lambert (Chief of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine), and Dr. Kevin Hardy (Program Director, Fellowship in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine, and Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine) showed us around the chambers," explained Upper School Science teacher and club advisor Jenn Jones. "What I found pretty cool is that while there are many individual hyperbaric oxygen chambers used for therapy in the world, Penn has only one of 100 walk-in multi-place chambers that hold many people at a time."
EA students explored the inside of the chamber to better understand its workings and how treatment promotes healing. They did not experience the chamber with pressurized oxygen.
"There are two different types of hyperbaric chambers. A mono-place and multi-use," shared Marcus Childs '24. "In the mono-place chambers, you access it through a small opening in the front that a person is slid through on a gurney. The doctors can climb through the small opening in the front, but there is also another opening on the side to enter through. When I went inside I had to duck my head when standing because I'm 5'10."
"We learned about how oxygen therapy works to heal a large variety of medical incidents from crush injuries, carbon monoxide poisoning, and radiation injury to diabetes and skin grafts," said Alyssa. "For example, we learned about how radiation treatment for cancer can damage surrounding blood vessels while eliminating cancer, impacting the body's ability to carry oxygen internally. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy solves this problem by increasing the oxygen flow and eventually in some cases, forming new blood vessels."
Marcus Childs '24, Julianna Yates 24, Alyssa Sterner '24, Erinne Bressler 23, Peyton Davis '24, Sarah Taylor '24, Adamo DiCarlo '24, Anjali Malikel-Ramakrishnan '24, Caroline Sewell '23, and Alexa Cohen '23 took part in this year's symposium.
"During our research in Annenberg, we like to get as close to a learning experience as we can so we can fully grasp what we're researching," said Marcus. "A first step is to always reach out to a doctor, whether it is one one of us knows or one from a hospital or university. Going to see and experience in person what we are researching is a great opportunity for us."
"EA’s Annenberg group strives to pick topics that are less heard of to get a well-rounded view of medical fields," said Alyssa. "Hyperbaric treatment covers an extensive amount of injuries, illnesses, and emergencies, so the entire club’s interests are covered and new interests are introduced."
The Annenberg High School Science Symposium was started in 2005. It allows students to demonstrate that medical discoveries are made through creativity, innovative science, and good teamwork.
"I think I speak for all of us when I say in Annenberg we are all fascinated by medical research and how it advances to help our society," said Marcus. "It is not simply just a research club, but a place that cultivates curiosity on how we can better improve the wellbeing of our world."
This year's symposium was held at EA in the Middle School Study Hall.