High Altitude Ballooning in Undergraduate STEM Curriculum: Preparing for Widespread Implementation

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CCLI Type 2 ABSTRACT 1047557This project is an extension of a previous Type 1 project on the use of high altitude balloons in the undergraduate curriculum via the High Altitude Research Platform (HARP). Undergraduate students are able to design and build their own experiments that they launch into near space 20 miles above the earth's surface. Students in various STEM classes (engineering, chemistry, biology, mathematics, computer science, physics, meteorology, astronomy, earth science, etc.) are engaged in learning through the unique real-world conditions that traveling to near space provides (extreme variations in temperature, pressure, atmospheric composition, humidity, UV, cosmic radiation, light intensity, views of the earth below, etc.). Data is streamed to the students in real time every second as the balloon ascends and descends via the unique sensors. The complete system is available from StratoStar Systems, LLC. Faculty are able to attain course learning objectives using real-world, hands-on projects in an environment that motivates students. Overall, it provides the opportunity for students to engage in the complete scientific method by formulating a hypothesis, designing an experiment to test the hypothesis, performing the experiment during a balloon launch, analyzing the data, drawing conclusions about their original hypothesis and presenting their findings. Prototyping the implementation of HARP into undergraduate education science method classes for preservice middle school teachers is underway. The future teachers are developing sixth through eighth grade science and mathematics lessons using streaming video and data to field test the lessons. Faculty members representing over fifty colleges and universities have attended workshops of the use and incorporation of HARP into the undergraduate curriculum and over twenty six of these institutions have acquired a HARP system. Plans are being developed for a National network of schools to foster ongoing dissemination and exchange of curricular materials.