High Altitude Balloon Inspires STEM Education

Published January 2009
The Indiana Space Grant Observer News Letter

INSGC affiliate director Glen Kissel from University of Southern Indiana (USI) was a participant at the workshop in May at Taylor University.

The National Science Foundation awarded a three-year Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) grant to Taylor University.  The grant objective was to integrate Taylor’s high altitude research platform (HARP) program into the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculums of over 20 institutions with an ultimate goal of reaching 40 institutions, predominately in the Midwest over the three-year grant period.

The project “New Heights in STEM Undergraduate Learning” was accomplished through four two-day faculty/staff workshops held on Taylor campus on May 21-22 and August 4-5, 2008.  The participants began the training and preparation for an experiment-laden weather balloon flight to the edge of space and were assessing how to include ballooning into their own science and engineering curricula.
This novel use of weather balloon technology has been pioneered in Indiana by Taylor University using seed money from the Indiana Space Grant Consortium.  Drawing on funds from the National Science Foundation and the expertise of a spin-off company, StratoStar Systems LLC, Taylor University has now expanded its outreach beyond the state.  Attendees included not only Hoosier participants, but also teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Menominee Nation in Wisconsin.
The teams selected an experiment to fly either to measure pressure, temperature, light intensity, relative humidity, energetic particles, or simply video-record views during the flight.  The balloon ascended at a rate of 1000+ ft/min and was followed by two chase teams, where each chase van was equipped with a balloon tracking antenna and street atlas software coupled to the balloon’s incoming GPS (global positioning system) telemetry.

Even with the balloon at 94,000 feet, it could be seen with naked eyes and the jet stream carried the parachute and packages over Ohio and the pods were successfully recovered.
Each team analyzed the data from their experiments and composed brief PowerPoint presentations.  In the presentations we saw and heard some dramatic video and audio recordings of the violent ride the assembled pods experienced through the jet streams, surprising even some long-time ballooning veterans.

During the workshop, Taylor University psychology students were tasked to evaluate our experience as part of a growing database on how high-altitude ballooning can impact STEM education.