For this recent lab exercise, Cochrum instructed the Saratoga High School students, who were mostly freshmen, to read their lab directions first. She warned them before they started the experiment that a plastic graduated cylinder would melt, so they should use a glass cylinder instead for measuring and heating water. She pointed to a melted graduated cylinder that hangs on her classroom wall as an example provided by a former student who made the unfortunate mistake of using a plastic cylinder.

The classroom reeked of burnt peanuts from the minute the students walked into the room, plugging their noses. The purpose of the lab exercise was to measure and capture the calories in a peanut.

After removing a peanut from its shell, students at each of the eight lab stations, with about five people per station, placed the peanut on top of a weighted nail. In delight, they lit the peanut on fire, watched it burn to black, and placed a vented tin can over the peanut. Then they held a test tube—using a test tube holder—through a hole cut in the top of the metal can. The water in the glass tube measured the energy in the peanut.

The students also weighed the peanut on a scale both before and after the experiment and compared the two weights. And they repeated this whole process at least three times with three different peanuts to obtain a result that was as accurate as possible.

"Re-light the peanut if the fire goes out immediately," Cochrum instructed. "I have confidence that you can do this—safely."

Cochrum said the change in the temperature of the water multiplied by the mass of the peanut times the heat of the flames equaled the approximate amount of calories in the peanut.

"It's scientific, and it makes me think," said student Lisa Brenner, adding that she also likes to eat the peanuts after the lab. "This lab is more fun than other labs. The other labs are full of calculations."

Cochrum said that most of her students would find an average of 50 calories per peanut. There's a huge discrepancy between a student's reading and a U.S. Department of Agriculture reading on a package of peanuts, because the department has more precise and controlled calculations. But, Cochrum said, regardless of the outcome, combining basic science and fun with fire makes the lab exciting for her students.

"They think it is the best lab ever," Cochrum said. "They light up like Christmas trees."

Ninth-grader Justin Chien said he enjoys playing with fire, especially because most of the time he's told to do just the opposite by his teachers. He also said the lab taught him to be a little more health conscious.

"A lot of times people start eating without knowing how many calories are in something," Chien said.

The lab stations competed against each other in friendly rivalry to see which team could heat the water in the glass test tube the hottest. Some of the teams' results reached well over 100 degrees.

"The hotter [the water] is, the better, because the more calories they are getting out of [the peanut]," Cochrum said.

But the class wouldn't be hands-on and filled with laughter and learning without a teacher like Cochrum.

"She is funny, crazy, and she gets close to her students," said freshman Josh Odenheimer. "She is also a really good lecturer."