So … where the heck have I been? Why no posts here in almost 4 months???

Well it hasn’t been for a lack of wanting to. Along with “issues” at my school that have something to do with “school reform” that have sucked my time in a major way (see my Twitter feed) I had a major nasal infection that became “anti-biotic resistant” and then surgery on my nose at Thanksgiving that I was expected to bounce back from in 3 to 5 days … but last week my surgeon informed me I needed to expect things to be good in a month or so (3 months after surgery). Needless to say my usual “high energy-ness” was compromised and is only now reviving. Apparently I broke my nose 2 or 3 times and once “really bad” many years ago – must have been in my high school hockey playing years in the suburbs of Detroit and LA … but I never remember even being hit in the nose (maybe that’s part of the problem).

Anyhow my intention is to get back in action here and elsewhere soon … and more consistently as well.

Learning is messy! (and you should see the photos inside my nose … well probably not)

Just a quick post before I’m off for New York. I’ve been contacted by NBC and they have asked me to stay a few days longer in New York after the New York Times Schools For Tomorrow conference to be part of an on-stage panel talking about “Innovation” in education during their Education Nation Townhall this Sunday. I’ll be on-stage with Brian Williams and others to be named that day.  This year the Townhall is the kickoff to their Education Nation week of focus on education.

Readers of this blog might note a bit of irony here in that I took NBC to task last year for their this same Townhall. Watch this space. : )

Learning is messy!

I left a comment on the “Education Nation Blog” post written by John Deasy, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Just thought I’d post it here tonight as well:

Supt. Deasy – Nice job tonight, don’t agree with you on everything, but appreciate your “can do” attitude. I would just like to ask if you find it telling that the conversation you participated in tonight about education included no actual educators or stakeholders that are in your schools doing the real work of teaching and learning every day. No teachers, parents, students that might broaden the discussion and share points-of-view about education that would be important to the discussion? Only business people and politicians with little to no actual classroom education experience.

Brian Crosby
Elementary Teacher

My 5th grade class sent up a high altitude balloon … well actually, Dr. Eric Wang from the University of Nevada, Reno, Mechanical Engineering Department and the NevadaSat program sent up a high altitude balloon from our playground with 2 payloads my class designed.

One of our payloads held 3 party balloons and a bag of Cheetos (a class favorite) to find out what effect air pressure would have on them. My students wrote up the experiment on their blogs and we put up a post on the teacher part of our blog soliciting others’ hypotheses of what would happen.

So what did happen? The balloon blown up to only about 1/4 size – green, was stretched almost to it’s breaking point:

The blue balloon which was inflated to about half size expanded so much in the low pressure of high altitude that it managed to intrude into the view of the camera mounted on the side of the payload at about 80,000 feet until it burst.

The orange balloon filled to full, more or less, pictured below at a fairly low altitude, burst first:

Here is a shot that shows the orange and blue balloons burst, and the green balloon expanding:

A great shot of Lake Tahoe from above 80,000 feet … just for fun:

And a couple of shots of the payload back in our classroom after recovery:

And here are links to almost all our photos:

These taken by my students of pre-launch and launch.

From our main camera payload (it is the payload with the balloons and chip bag on top):

And from the camera that was supposed to be trained directly on the payload with the balloons on top … but we seem to have had somewhat poor aim (but they are WAY cool anyhow!)

My students will be writing this up on their own blogs as well! Wait until you find out the story about where our balloon landed! But you’ll have to read my students’ blog posts about that next week to find out!

Learning is messy!!! (and a blast!)

If you are a teacher here is a simple science / blogging project your students (or just you) can participate in. If you are NOT a teacher, participate yourself (it’s simple) or have your own children participate. We are sending up a high altitude balloon 100,000 feet. We are going to attach a green balloon, a blue balloon, an orange balloon and a Cheetos bag on one of our payloads. The orange one is full of air, the blue one is half full, and the green party balloon is filled about ¼ of the way with air. We are also attaching a Cheetos bag – snack size on the top of the payload. Next, we will send the payload up over 100,000 feet on a high altitude balloon. What do you think will happen to the balloons and chip bag? Leave a comment by following the link below or one of the student posts telling what you think will happen to each balloon and the chip bag. What effect will going up almost 20 miles high have? We will post photos later on our class blog to show what happened. LEAVE YOUR ANSWER (HYPOTHESIS) here by clicking on the “ADD A COMMENT” tab after the photos.

Here is a link to the photos one of our cameras took – one of the lakes you see is Lake Tahoe, the other is Pyramid Lake.

Learning is messy!

If you ended up here to leave your “High Hope” for the world to go up over 100,000 feet on a high altitude balloon. CLICK HERE.

To see video of last year’s launch CLICK HERE. (note this video is yet to be narrated, but is still way cool to watch)

Next Wednesday, May 4, 2011, my students will be part of a 3 balloon launch from 2 elementary schools. The photo above was taken from about 107,000 feet a year ago during our last launch. Like last year, along with various science data we are collecting, we are sending our “high hopes” for the world up high. With the various strife happening in the world presently this seems like a timely project! Follow this link to add your High Hopes as a comment. Alternately you can leave your “High Hope” as a Tweet – just use this hashtag – #HHBalloon We will print them out and they will all become High Hopes as passengers on our balloons!

Learning is messy!

Not that I didn’t know what I was getting into. I mean everyone, um … most people, uh … many of us know that any kind of space mission is at the mercy of the weather, technical issues, and more – and any or all of these can change the schedule. So being on the other side of the country and trying to make flight and hotel reservations that are required to be “soft” and “flexible” (according to the email NASA – that’s right … I get emails straight from NASA now) is an adventure all in itself.

One of the issues of being an elementary teacher is what you have going on in class at any time … as well as what is happening with your family … and just up and leaving for 3 or 4 days. So things were stacking up against the original date for launch and my ability to make it … but today (and I had some “inside information” that only hundreds of thousands of people were privy to, that there would be a launch date change today – sorry I was sworn to secrecy), so things are still not for sure (although I have gotten “some” funding) at least the current date according to NASA (did I mention I get emails right from the actual NASA??? – I do):

“As we noted in the details email you received, numerous factors can cause a scheduled launch date to change, and the targeted launch date for space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-134 mission to the International Space Station has been changed. The new targeted lift off is 3:47 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 29.Endeavor’s launch date will not be scheduled officially until after the Flight Readiness Review, which is now re-scheduled for April 19.”

So things are looking up, but not a for sure … we are launching a couple of high altitude balloons around that time … probably not something to turn over to a sub … so I’m doing my best to make it happen.

Launching … er … Learning is messy!

I’ve had a flurry of requests … well um …  several (3) readers that suggested I post a link to my TEDxDenverEd Talk Last summer – so here it is: