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Science at 90,000 feet

Prof's class launches two weather balloons to collect data, learn to carry out experiments

A few days after the nation sat glued to its collective TV sets watching a homemade balloon glide through the air, worrying that a 6-year-old boy might be on board, a group of KU students, faculty and volunteers held a balloon launch of their own. But there was no hoax about it — the launch was in the name of science and learning how to teach it to young students.

Jim Ellis, associate professor of curriculum and teaching, took members of his class to a football field near Salina on Oct. 17, where they launched two weather balloons that climbed to nearly 90,000 feet, then burst, dropping sensors by parachutes that took measurements of oxygen levels, temperature, carbon dioxide levels and atmospheric pressure. The sensors, including a Geiger counter and cameras, took measurements on the way up and the way down.

Science education students enrolled in the Teaching Science in Middle and Secondary Schools class designed experiments and built six instrumentation modules that were taken aloft by two weather balloons. The project, which was an exercise in inquiry-based education, intended to show them how to design an experiment, carry it out and share the findings with a class, while teaching the scientific method the entire time.

“Some of our students haven’t experienced inquiry-based science teaching in their own education,” Ellis said. “Since that’s the way we want them to teach, we feel they need to get out there and experience it.”

Each year, the students design and conduct their own experiments as part of a model inquiry science unit. This year, they just happened to have a balloon satellite expert in their ranks. Paul Verhage, a veteran physical sciences and electronics teacher is a co-instructor in the class. A faculty member at Washburn Institute of Technology, Verhage is completing his doctoral work at KU. Verhage, a long-time amateur radio enthusiast, began working more with meteorological sensors in the past few years and eventually became involved with weather balloons.

He guided the students in designing the boxes that would hold the sensors to be attached to weather balloons that would rise into near space, burst and parachute to the ground. They used Styrofoam, tape and rubber bands among their materials.

“What they did was design technology to go up in a space shuttle,” Verhage said. “Their shuttle happened to be a weather balloon with parachutes and data sensors. It’s essentially a poor man’s space program.”

The students developed hypotheses about what weather conditions they would find at various altitudes and how they would change as the sensors reached different levels. They launched two balloons with about 10 to 15 sensors in each. They are now compiling their data and will report their findings in class.

The group launched its balloons near Salina at Kansas Wesleyan University. The Physics Club at Kansas Wesleyan provided the weather balloons and helium and built a tracking module to fly on one of the balloons. A crew of other weather and technology enthusiasts helped launch and track the balloons.

One balloon reached 88,000 feet, and the other climbed to 89,000 before sending their sensors plummeting to earth. Using tracking technology designed by Verhage, they were able to determine where the wind took the balloons and roughly where they would come down. One traveled about 95 miles, and the other was found about 100 miles away from its launch point near Leon.

“It’s kind of a road rally in a way,” Verhage said. “We got in the car and followed them, but only had a general idea of where they were going.”

The students have wrapped up their balloon experiment, but aren’t done with inquiry-based learning. Before graduating, they will team teach with educators working in the field. They will design and teach two inquiry lessons and report their findings as well as their progress with the class.

“This helps show that it’s not just about learning facts in a textbook,” Ellis said. “They’re going to be science teachers, so they need to be able to show how the scientific process works. It helps them understand the way scientists do their work and to be able to take that into the classroom and impart it to their students.”