Workshop Dates: May 21-22 or August 4-5, 2008
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 focus will be on training and equipping undergraduate professors / instructors of all areas (not just Electrical Engineering and Aerospace) to implement balloon launches in a course which they are teaching the next academic year and beyond. The workshop will focus on the science and experiments for undergraduate courses and not on building an entire high-altitude balloon system. (The balloon system will be provided by StratoStar.)
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 Doctorates of Electrical Engineering. Each attendee of the workshop will build some simple experiments from instructions or more sophisticated experiments related to their discipline using their own expertise.
One of the goals of the workshop is to give people some 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.
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STEM Field |
Example of Experiments |
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Engineering |
Mechanical and electrical engineering for HARP. Sensor development. |
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Chemistry |
Analysis of atmospheric chemicals. Chemical reactions in near |
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Biology |
Biological functions in near space. Agricultural and wildlife mapping |
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Computer Science |
Software programming for HARP system and HARP experiment data |
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Physics |
Sensors for Space Science, Nuclear Cosmic Rays, NanoSat |
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Math |
Application for HARP operation and HARP experiments. |
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Astronomy |
Cosmic Rays, Remote sensing of sun, stars. |
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Environmental |
Ecology mapping of the earth, animal tracking/diagnostics, river data |
Go Through the Entire Scientific Process/Learning Cycle
All attendees will participate in a night launch of a high-altitude balloon and go through 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, 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 them to utilize the knowledge gained at the workshop without the large investment into their own balloon system. This launch can be supported by Taylor University or StratoStar staff for assistance.
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.
Assessing High-Altitude Ballooning as a 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.