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High Hopes Balloon Launch May 28, 2019 – Update

In my last post I said I would update on the status of payloads and the recovery. The photo on the end of that post (also see below) showed the payloads hanging in a tree – that was all we knew thanks to Eric Wang – he snapped that photo and sent it to us to show he had found the payloads after back country skiing a total of 9 miles to get it.

He didn’t text anything more for hours because the weather was closing in, thunderstorms were forecast for later in the day, so they were in a hurry to get back.

But get them he did – the rocket was gone so we were anxious to download the video to see what happened. I picked up the payloads the next day – note the rocket launcher tube is split in half and hanging by the wires meant to ignite the motor. 4 GoPros now needed to be downloaded (4 to 6 hours of video).

This shot from above 100,000 feet just before the balloon burst told the sad news (That’s Lake Tahoe to the right of the payload BTW). You can see the nose of the rocket sticking out from the right of the payload above it – it was supposed to launch from 60,000 feet, so the fact that it was still there at 100,000 feet explained all we needed to know. Note the soda can inside the payload – it came back intact and the students toasted the experiment with sips of “space soda.”

The post mortem afterwards suggests the wiring came loose at some point so no ignition.

Watching the video frame by frame provided evidence of the rocket’s fate. In this screen shot below you can see the rocket falling away to the left just after balloon burst. The strings caught the mount during free fall and busted it loose.

Below is video of the launch from the payload’s perspective. (NOTE: you can see the launch from the ground in my last post.)

Below is the balloon burst from above the south end of Lake Tahoe just above 100,000 feet.

And here is the landing in a tree on a ridge in California near Sierra At Tahoe ski area.

I visited the classes today that designed and built the payloads. I returned their payloads and showed them the videos. There was disappointment that the rocket didn’t launch, but mostly there was excitement and questions and numerous comments about how much they’d learned in the process.

They want to be part of next year’s High Hopes Project and have a very intriguing idea for an experiment. I won’t share too many specifics, but it involves a rocket and breaking the sound barrier.

Lake Tahoe from above 100,000 feet.

Learning is messy!

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High Hopes Balloon Launch May 28, 2019 – What we know so far!

A highlight of our year is always working with a school or schools to incorporate STEM into launching a high altitude balloon (weather balloon) with student designed payloads attached to altitudes near or above 100,000 feet.

Yesterday was no exception, AND we had the extra added excitement around attempting to launch a small rocket from above 60,000 feet via an altimeter and Arduino set up (we don’t know if that was successful yet).

Prepping rocket launch payload before attachment to balloon.

Helium is very hard to get these days so we filled with hydrogen, fortunately our friends at the University of Nevada, Reno, have all the fireproof suits, gloves, masks and grounding wires (so no static) necessary. They filled while I was in the classroom stringing the rocket payload since the students had re-designed and built it since I was last there. We filled early because we knew it might get a bit windy, and it did – easier to have the balloon filled and tethered than to try and fill in the wind.

After balloon was filled with hydrogen – fireproof suits still on but headgear removed.

Then once the drone was airborne to record the launch, we launched.

Launch filmed from drone.

We could tell almost right away it wasn’t following the predicted flight path … then it seemed to adjust in a more favorable direction … but next it turned due west and went exactly where we didn’t want it to go. Into the heavily forested mountains and over lakes.

Predicted flight path. 10 predictions at once. Yellow dots show predicted burst, blue predicted landing location. These are usually accurate enough, but today “unsettled” atmospherics threw it off.
Actual flight track.

We packed up and began the recovery. We drove to Minden, Nevada, parked and watched the balloon high overhead until we saw it burst at over 100,000 feet. We followed it on aprs.fi (which provided the actual flight track above) and our 2 onboard Spot Trace trackers. Once we had a pretty good idea where it was going we continued the chase.

High point reported by aprs.fi – actual high point is a bit higher. We’ll find out once we get the Ham radio transceiver back as it records the actual high point.

After burst the payloads drop very quickly as there is not enough air to inflate the parachute (at that altitude you’re above 98% of the Earth’s atmosphere, considered “near space”). At about 50,000 feet the parachute starts doing its job. As we neared the reported landing spot we mapped out the closest roads for recovery. As we drove we ran into a large tree blocking one road and a large snow drift blocking the other, so we were on foot. Teacher Collin Belnap accompanied us on the recovery and he put together a video of the recovery attempt.

One mile became two and then the GPS pointed up a steep ridge. Despite hours of searching Lou Loftin, who works with me, found the spot the GPS claimed was the landing spot but he found nothing and exhaustion forced him to give up the search.

High on a ridge at over 8,000 feet the GPS claimed the balloon payloads were right here … but they are nowhere in sight.

Meanwhile, Dr. Eric Wang, mechanical engineering associate professor from the University of Nevada, Reno, who had helped with the launch was following our progress (or lack thereof) and decided he and a friend could back country ski to the spot which he had pinpointed. They’d approach from above via the Sierra at Tahoe ski area (closed for the season). So this morning they made the trek and all we’ve gotten back from them so far is this photo showing the parachute and payloads hanging in a tree.

We don’t know anything else … were they able to retrieve? Are they on their way back? I’ll keep you posted and share video, data and what we learn about the rocket launch!

Learning is messy!

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Announcing the Northern Nevada Science & Technology Festival

After much planning and collaboration a dedicated group of Nevada science and STEM educators and advocates are set to facilitate the first annual Northern Nevada Science and Technology Festival.

Each night during the week of May 13th a different venue will offer FREE community events that emphasize family engagement in science, technology, STEAM and more.

Educators, you can invite a STEM professional into your classroom to add professional expertise to your lessons including sharing their research projects, collaborating with your classroom on an activity or project or even read a book to your students related to their field. To request a STEM professional, complete a request form by going to: http://www.nvstem.org/ambassador-request-form

Educators are encouraged to “Share Your Project” on the “Science In Schools” page. Find out much more by perusing the website.

Learning Is Messy!

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High Hopes Project HAB Launch 6/1/18

Group photo just before launch

I’m going to try and catch up on some long past due posts about the High Hopes Project. Last June we launched from Virginia City High School in Nevada. I posted about the preparation for the launch which will give you good background on the payloads students designed. The launch went flawlessly – perfect weather, not a puff of wind.

 

 

 

Besides the student payloads and GoPro cameras, we launched our Flir infrared camera as well which gave us some interesting perspectives. Note the shadows in this shot:

Note the long shadows from the early morning sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then note what appear to be shadows in this screenshot taken from the video shot by our infrared camera soon after launch:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What appear to be shadows are not. They are cooler areas on the ground caused by the shadows of the balloon and students. Note the balloon has already been launched and is 200 feet in the air (or more), how could its shadow be where it was before it launched?

Here is video of the launch in infrared:

And here is the launch taken from the ground:

One of the student payloads was an interesting sound experiment. The question they were trying to answer was: “At high altitude above 98% of the Earth’s atmosphere, would the air be so thin that sound would not travel through the thin air to be picked up by a microphone?” The students designed a Tie-Fighter from Star Wars (just for fun) and had the Star Wars theme playing on a loop. You can see the ball shaped speaker in the center of the video. They insulated the base so sound would not travel through the payload and be picked up by the microphone. It started out great, but unfortunately at about 42,000 feet it just got too cold (probably around -10F) and the batteries, which had lasted for 3 hours when they did a test in a school freezer at 15F, just quit. We edited together video from launch and then spliced in at about 8,000 feet and then just before the batteries died:

Another student payload took on the engineering task of releasing the “High Hopes” of the world. Students and others from around the world had submitted their high hopes for their school, community and the world through a Google Form or Twitter (about 1100 were submitted). The “Hopes” were printed out and cut out individually and placed in a payload students had designed to open about an hour into the mission. Again the batteries they had tested, and lasted for 5 hours at 15F, that ran the motor that would open up the payload to release the high hopes failed. Fortunately they had designed in a back-up system. When the balloon burst and the payloads fell to Earth at over 200 miles per hour (until the parachute slowed them down at lower altitude) a fin on the side of their payload caught the wind and pulled open a side of the payload and released the high hopes.

High Hopes release at about 95,000 feet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is video of the burst and high hopes release in slow motion:

After a flight we like to note what happens to the balloon on the way up. Note in the photo at the top of this post the 2000 gram balloon is probably about 6 – 8 feet across (we over-filled it a bit so it would go up fast and come down before it got too far up in the mountains and private property). When it burst it was just a bit bigger:

At launch the payloads almost cover up the balloon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But just before burst at 95,000 feet … note any difference in balloon size? If so, why?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some more photos taken up high:

Burst

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Tahoe on the left, Pyramid Lake on the right at 92,000 feet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yerington, Nevada, from 90,000 feet. A wide angle setting on this camera and the movement from falling exaggerates the Earth’s curve in the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many more photos on this Flickr album.

We came very close to “catching” this one on the way down, but were thwarted when we lost cell service (so GPS as well) at a key point in the descent and missed it by about 2 minutes.

Learning is messy!!

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What Happened to the Potential of Social Media in Education?

A post that happens when Twitter isn't enough

Dean Shareski posted this to Twitter (SM = Social Media):

Read the thread of comments (it’s worth a minute or 2) by following the link.

I’ve written a bit about this before, and ironically that post from 8 years ago also involved Dean (Who’da Thunk?).

Dean is right, when this social media thing was new and all, some of us saw a powerful potential for it’s use in the classroom and beyond as a thoughtful, motivating and powerful way to connect our students with each other, and experts, and locations, and learning that hadn’t been very accessible before. Now they were available, and they were available on a global scale. Time zones were pretty much the major obstacle (and fear for some, really many I guess). I co-wrote a book about what we had learned along the way because we found it was pretty much as awesome as we thought it would be.

Many of us sang the praises of blogging and Twitter and Flickr and Skype and Facebook (except it was usually blocked even more often than the others). We’d encourage and almost demand that those attending presentations we were giving sign up for Twitter … RIGHT NOW! …. and provide the screenshots to follow and time to sign up. This was such an powerful tool we had to evangelize to the world about it.

So what happened? Plenty of good things happened. Many teachers made those connections and shared learning experiences that were leveraged by the use of online tools. Blogging was my favorite because a blog can be writing, but also photos, video clips, podcasts, and more … and the photos could be of student artwork field trips, math …. any subject. My class connected with Dean a few times when he was working with teachers in Canada … but we danced with students in New Zealand, performed experiments with classrooms around the world, shared guest speakers and much, much more.

So what didn’t happen? Plenty. Among the things that didn’t happen was what usually happens in education – a lack of professional development, especially for those that needed more support and experience to see the value. Just doing “technology” isn’t where the value is, but that is where schools/education in general tended to go … the message too many get is that just by doing school on a computer will bring the change we are looking for … so not true.

Fear was and is big – will the boogey-man get me or my students and will I get in trouble? Access – to the internet, to technology (well the lack of access really) is and was a roadblock. Time, in reality, but also the perception of lack of time for all this stuff stops many from gaining the experience necessary. A very demanding, narrowed and scripted curriculum that does not lend itself to integration, going deep and being thoughtful … that happened big time.

I think the potential is still there. It just needs a re-birth of sorts. At least more of us know the nuts and bolts of getting online and setting up accounts and some safety concerns. Perhaps now the focus needs to shift to the powerful collaboration, connecting, editing, sharing between our students about important things (not mostly bopping around via video-conferencing to figure out where someone’s school is) that these tools provide us. Share science data, stories, poetry, how to do things, art projects, robot designs and so much more … and take the time to do them well and even the time to re-edit and re-present. Then have conversations about them in the comments … and teach students how to have the positive, supportive discourse that makes it powerful and the world a better place.

There’s lots more to say about this, its a very important discussion that should be ongoing … maybe we can have some of that discussion in the comments here (or on Twitter or elsewhere). I’m out of time for now. I hope this continued Dean’s Tweet conversation in a meaningful way.

Learning is messy!

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch – A 5th Grade Learning Sequence

Plastic pollution in an ocean gyre. Some floats on the surface, but more floats beneath the surface.

I am part of a team that is facilitating the “Nevada Engineering Fellows Program” for 5th grade teachers in Nevada. The funding for the program came from the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science Innovation & Technology. A major goal of the program is for teachers to learn how to design and build NGSS aligned STEM units with an emphasis on engineering, and to be able to evaluate the quality of units they find elsewhere.

The plastic pollution problem in our oceans has become catastrophic. Plastic never goes away it, just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces (micro plastics) that are ingested by sea life (and then us).

Chris Jordan http://www.parley.tv/updates/2016/3/17/chris-jordan-midway-message-from-gyre

We started by having the participating teachers experience a model unit we designed on removing plastic from the ocean. They spent all day on a Saturday in October learning the unit. Then we provided all the materials required for the teachers to take the unit back to their classrooms to do with their students. We visited every classroom to observe how things were going and to consult. The phenomena that kicked off the unit is the video below (there are many others to choose from BTW if you search the web). Teachers and students reported to us during our classroom visits how compelling watching and re-watching the video and making/sharing observations of what they saw and heard … really motivated them to want to take on this engineering challenge.

Here is a link to the unit plan.  Kris Carroll did most of the heavy lifting on the unit design with plenty of  help from Stacy Cohen, Tracey Gaffney and myself.

The graphic organizers referenced in the unit plan and some support materials:

Engineering INB Phase A_3_5_ElementarySchool 

Engineering INB Phase B_3_5_ElementarySchool

Engineering INB Phase C_3_5_ElementarySchool

Engineering In NGSS Handout

Engineering Design_Grades_3_5

Here is the materials list for making a plastic gyre for each group (although we substituted somewhat and some teachers added to it): Materials for gyre

Here is a link to a Flickr set from teacher trainings in- Southern Nevada, Northern Nevada

Here are photos from 10 classrooms in Northern Nevada.

BELOW: These are the plastic plant trays we provided:
IMG_4705

But some teachers substituted with larger containers: IMG_4718

The trays of water were somewhat problematic in that they were small (so they could be utilized more easily in moving to and from student tables) and students struggled with scale. One big suggestion based on our experience, after the initial trial of their design, have a complete debrief that includes a discussion of size of both the plastic debris (which should be cut much smaller than you see here) but also that the devices students build need to be smaller than you see here as well. In addition discuss how the trays represent a tiny, tiny part of the ocean (students really struggled with understanding the size of oceans). Also we suggest after the initial experience have students brainstorm materials that they believe should be included in the materials they have available to build their plastic removal/gathering device – then gather them from the school and have students find things at home to bring in to provide themselves more options.

We had an all day class for the teachers after most of them had completed most of the unit. They all reported that they and their students were highly motivated by the experience (and we noted the same during our classroom visits). Next teachers are designing their own units to match up with their curriculum using this experience as a model. I really feel I’m sharing only a sliver of the potential for this lesson and how it went here, so feel free to ask questions in the comments.

Learning is messy!

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NSTA Position Paper on Elementary School Science

The National Science Teachers Association makes the case for more science learning

From the NSTA Position Paper on Elementary Science:

“High-quality elementary science education is essential for establishing a sound foundation of learning in later grades, instilling a wonder of and enthusiasm for science that lasts a lifetime, and in addressing the critical need for a well-informed citizenry and society.”

No Child Left Behind and other well meaning, but very misguided (at best) education reform legislation narrowed out science (as well as a long list of other invaluable subjects) from the curriculum, especially from “at risk” schools. The thinking (wishing? assumption?) was that students that were behind in language and math would “catch-up” more quickly if schools and teachers just focused on those subjects. In addition the “research-based” programs that were promoted and funded tended to rely heavily on direct instruction and very little on making sense by doing. The assumption was made, promoted and implemented (with rigor and fidelity) that students would catch-up on the science, social studies, art, PE and more once they got to 7th grade. (Mostly … they aren’t catching-up)

In my own 30+ year experience teaching elementary students, mostly “at risk” students, I found over and over that science and making experiences motivated students to read and write and use oral language skills to explain their thinking. I shared some of those experiences during a TEDx talk I gave in Denver years ago. I’ve also shared numerous blog posts here about the learning my students have done because we did hands-on “doing” pieces that lead to lots of language arts and math … in fact I believe more powerful language arts and math than just following a program.

I’m not saying there isn’t a place for direct instruction, just that direct instruction and practice is way too sterile and uninspiring to slog through day after day. It tends to be a desirable approach for “other peoples” kids to be subjected to.

The curiosity and wonder that evolve from science and STEM inquiry (as well as art, social studies, and more) should be consistently promoted by daily science instruction and experiences. AND language arts and math time should be devoted when applicable to science. I note that the NSTA Position Paper on Elementary Science espouses:

  • There must be adequate time in every school day to engage elementary students in high-quality science instruction that actively involves them in the processes of science.

and that:

  • NSTA recommends that science be given equal priority as other core subjects, so schools should strive for at least 60 minutes of science instruction a day, including significant science investigations.

How many students have become disengaged and bored by a curriculum that focuses on skills and has narrowed out the subjects and activities that many students connect with? A focus on language arts and math are interesting to students that connect well, are successful with and motivated by those subjects, but too many struggle and are frustrated by that focus. Use the subjects and activity that they connect with to give them reason and curiosity to engage more with learning. Understanding how things work and feel and smell and sound brings meaning to reading that another worksheet or skill lecture can’t develop.

The NSTA Position Paper on Elementary Science goes much deeper into the many reasons science  learning time and quality experiences should be expanded and nurtured in our schools. It is well worth reading.

Learning is messy!

 

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Science Task Prescreen

Help with thinking through STEM / Science learning

In my work with teachers on assessing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) I find one of the toughest shifts for them to make is to develop tasks that are meaningful and really worth diving into. The NGSS are performance based standards that are very different from science standards many (maybe most) teachers are used to implementing.

The NGSS standards are not about explaining and showing students (the “sage on the stage” approach) and having them read about it and answer some questions. Every NGSS standard begins with the words, “Students who demonstrate understanding can:” Example from 5th grade –  “Students who demonstrate understanding can: Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.” To meet this standard students have to be able to do this, perform this on their own, not watch the teacher or Bill Nye do it and explain it and then answer questions. This standard will take time and multiple experiences to master.

To help educators design lessons and tasks for their students Achieve has provided this “Science Task Prescreen.”

“The purpose of the Science Task Prescreen is to conduct a quick review of assessment tasks to determine whether they might be designed for standards based on the Framework for K-12 Science Education, like the Next Generation ScienceStandards (NGSS). The Prescreen is intended to reveal whether tasks include “red flags”—i.e., challenges commonly found in science assessment tasks.”

I’ve used this with teachers and find it really helps them begin the shift from old style science instruction that was more about answering questions and less about doing and understanding. Check it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning is messy!

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Nevada – 5th Annual Statewide Recycled Art Contest

Make a Difference. Make a Masterpiece

Chris Jordan http://www.parley.tv/updates/2016/3/17/chris-jordan-midway-message-from-gyre

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a 5th Grade Engineering Fellows Program I am co-facilitating here in Nevada. We are kicking off the program soon with a lesson on plastic waste in the ocean (follow the link above to see a video and more that explains the issue). We’ll share some video and other background, and then to make a long story short, we’ll challenge the teachers (and then they’ll go back to their classrooms and challenge their students) to engineer solutions to gathering the waste (although some experts contend that instead of focusing on collection, the main effort should be on not adding additional plastics to the oceans). I’m hoping to add the entire plastics lesson we are building in a future post.

Then in a very timely fashion I was made aware of the contest I pasted the press release about below. More info about the contest can be found here NevadaRecycles.nv.gov. We will share this with our “fellows” as a way to add an art connection to their engineering piece. For those Nevada teachers / residents that are interested here is the press release:

From: Recycling and Water [mailto:ENVIRONEWS@LISTSERV.STATE.NV.US] On Behalf Of Patricia Moen
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2018 9:02 AM
To: ENVIRONEWS@LISTSERV.STATE.NV.US
Subject: 2018 Recycled Art Contest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Southern Nevada: Rachel Lewison, rlewison@ndep.nv.gov, 702-486-2850, ext. 268

                 Northern Nevada: Patty Moen, pmoen@ndep.nv.gov, 775-687-9466

5th Annual Statewide Recycled Art Contest
Make a Difference. Make a Masterpiece

CARSON CITY, NV – The Nevada Recycles program has partnered with The Venetian Resort Las Vegas to support a statewide recycled art contest to increase Nevadans’ awareness and interest in recycling. In support of Earth Day’s 2018 campaign to End Plastic Pollution, this year’s projects must be made with used or found plastic materials. Fastening materials may include tape, glue and/or string, and other materials as needed for structure or support. Submission of an entry form and photos of artwork are due by October 24, 2018.

In addition to a $250 prize to the first place class project, The Venetian will provide first, second and third prizes ($200, $100 and $50 respectively) in five categories: Kindergarten-Grade 5, Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Adult, and Professional Artist.

In 2017, Nevada’s recycling rate was 21%.  Based on residential and commercial sector data, Nevadans (including the influence of the tourist population) throw away about 5.8 pounds of trash, per person, per day.  That is approximately four million tons of trash that enters a landfill each year.

“Recycling is the easiest thing we can do to save energy, conserve natural resources and create green jobs,” said Pranav Jampani, Director of Sustainability for The Venetian, The Palazzo and Sands Expo.

Winners will be announced on America Recycles Day, which is Thursday, November 15.  More information about the contest, along with submission guidelines, is available at NevadaRecycles.nv.gov.

Patty Moen

Northern Nevada Recycling Coordinator
Solid Waste & Recycling Branch
Bureau of Sustainable Materials Management

901 S. Stewart Street

Carson City, NV 89701
pmoen@ndep.nv.gov

Learning is messy!!

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Class dynamics and culture are really time consuming AND really worth every minute!

When you visit awesome schools, it always the culture you notice and talk about

Yesterday, I wrote a piece about assuming students have collaboration skills and building class culture. These vital learning pieces were greatly deemphasized and cut (even ridiculed as a waste of time) during the last 15 years or so of school “reform.” I meant to include a paragraph or so about how time consuming building class culture and group dynamics is (what tends to be called “Social Emotional Learning” today) … which is one of the reasons they were vilified, since making sure every piece of every “researched based” ELA, math, intervention and writing program must be implemented with absolute fidelity, and that took up the whole day … no time for anything else (even apparently  science, art, social studies, PE …..).

I was fortunate to be part of a staff long ago that was told in no uncertain terms before school started, that we should take 4 to 8 weeks to focus on building a supportive, collaborative culture in our classrooms. The principal was looking for that happening from the first day of school and the staff worked together on lessons and activities and literacy pieces and projects all designed to foster and build that culture. I remember my first year at that school wondering how that would take 4 to 8 weeks (with follow ups throughout the year). BTW it wasn’t like we didn’t teach reading and math and science and everything else … its just that we took some of the time for those subjects, especially early on to teach whole lessons and discussions and talk about what we were reading (Crow Boy, Maniac Magee, and others were favorites) that centered on respect, collaboration skills and more.

My students even produced some award winning video projects that sprang up around our work in these areas: Don’t Laugh At Me and Being Different come to mind as student initiated projects. And these took a lot of class time for students to produce. But the language and discussion and writing and creativity they spawned were incredible. And if we had problems come up later in the year it wasn’t unusual that we would watch and discuss these videos and revisit discussions about books and activities we’d experienced. IT TOOK TIME! Valuable time, but valuable time well spent (and note the arts and hands-on technology use … and when I run into these students from time to time (now past college graduate age whether they went to college or not) these projects and others are what they want to talk about.

So my message here is it shouldn’t just be that you have a Social Emotional Learning program at your school with siloed lessons …. we should be spending the time to make this kind of learning and work part of the culture at school and in our communities. I think we are currently experiencing the results first hand of cutting these experiences because ELA and math were more important.

Learning is messy!