High-Altitude Balloon Workshop
"New Heights in Science Education"
presented by
Taylor University & StratoStar Systems LLC
Workshop Dates: June 1 - 2 OR July 29 - 30, 2009
The purpose of this NSF funded High-Altitude balloon workshop is to integrate balloon launches into the classrooms and curricula of undergraduate science and engineering courses around the country.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded Taylor University and StratoStar Systems to train and equip undergraduate professors / instructors of all areas (not just Aerospace) to implement balloon launches in a course which they are teaching. Additionally, the NSF grant offers a $200.00 stipend per university to offset the travel and lodging costs associated with the workshop.
The workshop will focus on the mechanics and theory of using high-altitude balloon launches in undergraduate science and engineering courses.
Picture of earth's curvature taken by student payload.
Open to all levels of scientific or technical disciplines.
The workshop and materials have been designed for a person who has a basic grasp of electricity and circuits (High-school physics level) all the way through PhD. Each attendee of the workshop will build experiments from instructions with the goal of learning how to teach students how to build high-altitude balloon payloads.
The workshop is intended to give people training and access to detailed instructions for building and implementing a few sensor packages, as a first step into high-attitude ballooning. This may suit the needs of many of the undergraduate courses, but professors are encouraged to develop their own experiments to be flown in the future.
CCLI Summer 2008 workshop professors preparing to launch.
To demonstrate that this workshop is for all science and engineering fields, the following table includes examples of experiments from various fields. The workshop attendees can also tailor make their experim ents specifically for their classes.
|
STEM Field |
Example of Experiments |
|
Engineering |
Mechanical and electrical engineering for HARP (high altitude research platform) Sensor development. |
|
Chemistry |
Analysis of atmospheric chemicals. Chemical reactions in near |
|
Biology |
Biological functions in near space. Agricultural and wildlife mapping of the earth. |
|
Computer Science |
Software programming for HARP system and experiment data |
|
Physics |
Sensors for Space Science, Nuclear Cosmic Rays, NanoSat |
|
Math |
Application for high altitude research platform operation and experiments. |
|
Astronomy |
Cosmic Rays, Remote sensing of sun, stars. |
|
Environmental |
Ecology mapping of the earth, animal tracking/diagnostics, river |
Go Through the Entire Scientific Process/Learning Cycle
All attendees will participate in a launch of a high-altitude balloon and experience the entire process a student will go through when preparing to launch a balloon experiment. In particular, the students experience the entire scientific process which we call The Learning Cycle which includes: Study Theory, Research, Instrumentation, Launch, Operations, Analyze Data, and Publish. For the purpose of the workshop each of the steps will be abbreviated, but the full impact will be experience.
Post Workshop Benefits (Free Balloon Launch)
For workshop participants, we will provide rental equipment for a balloon launch at your institution for the next academic year. This will allow attendees to utilize the knowledge gained at the workshop without a large investment into their own balloon system.
We also plan on having a forum or online networking to be used by workshop attendees to discuss and post questions and success stories to create synergy and form new ideas.
Releasing a balloon for a freshman seminar inspired, in part, by the Taylor University workshop. (University of Minnesota)
Assessing High-Altitude Ballooning as an Educational Tool
Taylor University's Psychology Department has developed tools for assessing the impact of high altitude ballooning on student learning.
These tools will be implemented at both the workshop as well as at the launches at the various institutions. The data from this assessment will help show the measurable benefits of launching high-altitude balloons for undergraduate education. In addition, the results will show the areas for professors and instructors to focus on in order to improve learning in the classroom.
Ballon Launch at Taylor
The July workshop is full. If you wish to be added to the list for next year, please email us at ssgavin@taylor.edu
