View Project Website

One of the primary goals of educators is to encourage, support and facilitate their students’ achievement whether in the academic or personal achievement realm. The eighth grade students at Springville-Griffith Institute Middle School were able to extend their knowledge and expectations with an enrichment program that saw their project reach the stratosphere – literally.

This stratosphere project was modeled after a similar experiment completed by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) students last spring. About 40 S-GI students worked on the project after three weeks of planning and experimentation that involved social studies, English, math, science and technology teachers.

The goal was to launch a weather balloon that would reach the stratosphere, 17 miles up, and to bring it down with photographic proof. To make it work, the students researched GPS software, camera programming and weather patterns. To solve the problem of the cord cutting through the Styrofoam cooler carrying the electronics to a parachute, and then to the balloon, the students devised plastic tube carriers made from disposable pens and hot-glued them in place.

A refurbished digital camera was purchased and Mr. Ben Higgins, district technology integrator and Mr. Andrew Przybycien, BOCES technology specialist, were able to obtain and install some special software. The camera had an 8 GB memory and was capable of taking a photo every six seconds for about eight hours.

A pre-paid cell phone was placed in the capsule to provide a GPS tracking source. The students were able to see their capsule’s altitude, speed and direction on a computer screen, and the “chase crew” was able to find it when it landed.

Mr. Joseph Karb, social studies teacher noted that the parachute and cooler were tested by dropping it from the Middle School roof. They had packed eggs inside that landed without a crack. A foam substance helped to hold the camera in the capsule and to cushion it and the cell phone. Hand warmers were pressed alongside the electronic devices along with lithium batteries powering them to help them withstand the cold of the stratosphere. A piece of aluminum foil was also placed in the capsule so that radar could detect its presence.

The weather balloon was inflated with helium to a diameter of five feet. It was closed with plastic ties and a parachute and the cooler capsule were attached below. The balloon was designed to expand until it broke, and once shredded, the parachute took over and brought the capsule safely back to earth. It was found undamaged in a farmer’s field north of Batavia.

Students watched a computer projection of the balloon’s trajectory that predicted touchdown near Warsaw. The capsule landed far north and a bit west of the predictions, due to the many variables including wind speed and the speed and direction of the jet stream.

Prior to the 8:50 a.m. launch on Nov. 18, Mr. Karb had contacted the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) in Atlanta to report the weather balloon launch. The FAA had been contacted previously for design approval and launch permission. Aircraft were warned to avoid Springville until the balloon cleared air space.

Airborne for about three hours, the capsule camera took 2100 photos. Many of those photos have been posted on the S-GI web site at www.springvillegi.org/webpages/sballoon.

MIT launched their capsule for $150. It cost a bit more here, at $225. The Middle School Student Council donated funds toward the project as did several teachers. A parent donated the tank of helium.

The 40 students involved worked in teams: camera and capsule teams, Mr. Karb; weather/trajectory team, Ms. Lisa Ricci, math teacher; videography team, Ms. Shana Cole, English teacher; GPS team, Mr. Stephen Reese, science teacher; and programming team, Mr. Higgins and Mr. Przybycien. Mr. Michael Stefan, technology teacher also assisted in the project.

Working with their teachers at the launch site were Anthony Paluch, Dylan Nelson, Joshua Gernold, Gregory Beatty, Zachary Kontos, Chelsea Slippy and Lindsey Shelley. They were interviewed, with Mr. Karb, by WGRZ-TV who aired a news segment about the launch on Nov. 18 along with the “Kids 2 Day” program on Nov. 21.

“We couldn’t buy just one balloon, we had to buy two. So we are planning a different experiment with the second one,” Mr. Karb added.