In an earlier post I quoted a press release that stated that 900+ students and teachers would participate in the Great Reno Balloon Race, Tissue Paper Balloon Launch Day. A last minute surge of participants put the number closer to 1100. And note that teachers can only bring their classes if they have attended one of our trainings on how to construct a tissue paper balloon. These trainings have been going on for years, so there was a greater number of teachers that could participate than we thought would register.
With the help of the University of Nevada, Reno, Swim and Dive Team we ran 10 of our 14 launchers non-stop to not only launch every balloon, but also numerous re-launches after students re-engineered their balloons after their first launch, making changes to get the most out of their balloon. Usually this involved cutting the weight and patching holes. We had tables set up with tape and scissors and glue sticks to encourage just such re-engineering.
The Great Reno Balloon Races contacts all teachers that have been trained, makes them aware of the date of this year’s launch, pays for their materials to construct their class balloons, transportation to the Great Reno Balloon Race site, provides volunteers and then feeds all participants a barbecue lunch. Some participants have an 80 mile round trip … all paid for … a fantastic resource to get teachers and students involved in STEM learning. The Great Reno Balloon Race staff are totally supportive of the entire endeavor. And now we are talking about expanding the program to include even more students and teachers! 
The wind decided to change directions late in the morning. This led to some “Charlie Brown Kite-In-The-Tree” kind of experiences … about 3 out of hundreds. We’ve already planned to make that less likely next year.
Besides the Tissue Paper launches, we also launched 3 high altitude balloons, one about every 45 minutes or so. These were part of making students and teachers aware of this years expanded “High Hopes Project.” During the spring of 2015 we are planning to launch probably several balloons up to 100,000 feet (30,000+ meters). We collected “High Hopes” – from students, stuffed them in the balloons and sent them up to 60,000 feet – so their “High Hopes” went up high. We will share much more about this school year long project soon.
There’s no reason we should have all the fun and learning though. So I just posted about how to construct a tissue paper balloon, and also the launchers we used. Try this incredible STEM learning experience yourself!
Here are links to more photos and videos of launches:
Learning is messy!