This was originally posted at the High Hopes Project web site.
Note the 4 party balloons that all started out the same size before they were inflated, on their way to 30,500 meters (100,000 feet ) from a balloon flight last year. On our upcoming flight we will inflate 4 of the same size balloons – the first balloon will be inflated to about 1/4 of its capacity (like the yellow balloon in the photo), the second balloon to about 1/2 of its capacity (see the green balloon above), the third to about 3/4 its capacity (Note the orange balloon), and the fourth balloon will be inflated close to full (Note the red balloon above). What will happen to them during the flight? What are the characteristics of the atmosphere that may effect them and what, if any, will that effect be? Explain your conclusion.
When we launch the “High Hopes” high altitude weather balloon we will include this experiment. We will have a camera recording what happens to the balloons and share those images with you after the flight in late April or early May 2015. So do your research about our atmosphere, discuss with your collaborators, do some heavy thinking, then write what you think will happen. You could even leave your written thoughts here as a comment if you’d like.
Learning is messy!
This is such a cool way to get students excited about science. I never got a chance to make hypotheses with anything cool (let’s be honest) in honest until late high school. I’ll enjoy keeping track of your impressions of how well it works in galvanizing the students 🙂
Hello,
I am a fifth grade teacher and I have to say that I love this real world application of science. It makes learning more engaging and meaningful to the students because it brings the material to life. The experiment itself answers traditional students questions of: Why do I need to know this? How will I use this information in the real world? This experiment aligns very much with Daniel Pink’s theory of drive and how the most meaningful form of motivation is rooted on the characteristics of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. The experiment your conducting with you class is very autonomous because the task is self-directed, ample time is given to students, the group organizes a collaborative team, and the technique in which they accomplish the task is open ended. There is also a level of intrinsic motivation established by the experiment itself – the activity is it’s own reward for the pure joy of learning. I, myself am curious to seen the results of this experiment. You are doing amazing things in your classroom; keep on motivating and engaging your students!