

Pics from 8th graders successful 100k foot high flight, $200 ballon - asmithmd1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2010/07/12/ST2010071205351.html?sid=ST2010071205351

======
etm117
This is truly great. I hope the teacher(s) are doing a bunch of follow-up work
teaching about how and why this worked. Also use that interest to drive into
other topics such as how the balloon gets its lift versus a rocket engine.

This type of out of the ordinary teaching gets kids excited about learning.
And the best part is because it is exciting, they probably do not even realize
that they are "learning", they just go home and talk about all the awesome
stuff they did putting a balloon into space. And the talk of that "stuff" is
all the stuff they learned without needing to sit and study from a book or
have a teacher lecture at you while you stare out the window.

------
jgrahamc
_And the experience of launching and tracking the device was like a scene
right out of Hollywood, Wiley said, as the kids tracked the device in real-
time using a student's iPad._

Because, you know, it wouldn't be real or exciting if it wasn't like a scene
out of Hollywood.

But the school has a nice page on this here with video:
[http://www.potomacschool.org/campus-life/campus-
life/interme...](http://www.potomacschool.org/campus-life/campus-
life/intermediate-school/is-ballon-visits-the-edge-of-space/index.aspx)

~~~
jws
Really futuristic would be if the Washington Post would let my iPad show the
photo gallery.

~~~
ekanes
Here's the best photo, imho, courtesy of skitch.
[http://skitch.com/aarond/dcjnd/kidspost-the-edge-of-the-
eart...](http://skitch.com/aarond/dcjnd/kidspost-the-edge-of-the-earth)

------
emzo
Someone should keep a list of exciting projects like this that schools could
undertake - somewhere teachers could go to for inspiration.

~~~
TallGuyShort
_somewhere teachers could go to for inspiration._

Unfortunately, a lack of inspiration is only part of the problem. My middle
school science teacher would do stuff like this all the time, and it was
great. In high school I had a teacher try similar things, but after a while
they were asked to stay in the classroom and teach from the book. Tragic, if
you ask me.

~~~
asmithmd1
Right, high altitude balloon flying is not on the standardized test that all
government schools are judged by since the "No Child Left Behind" act.

All government school teachers now have to "teach" to the test and can't waste
time on projects like this.

~~~
anamax
> All government school teachers now have to "teach" to the test and can't
> waste time on projects like this.

Those tests are a fairly low bar, so competent teachers have no problem making
sure that their kids pass and doing things like high altitude balloon flying.

The problem is the teachers who don't manage to get their kids over that low
bar. They don't do high altitude balloon flying, but they will do pointless
field trips and never get around to teaching kids to read.

Feel free to argue that high altitude balloon flying is more important than
reading.

~~~
jerf
"Feel free to argue that high altitude balloon flying is more important than
reading."

I would rather that 20 kids be able to fly a balloon, and the 21st kid who
can't read be shuffled off to some other program/classroom to learn to read,
than for 21 kids to sit in a classroom learning to read when 20 of them
already know.

That wasn't so hard. All I had to do was reject the idea that children are all
identical and if they aren't being exposed to the _exact same education_ each
then they are being misserved.

This is yet another argument that, in order to make sense, has to take as
axiomatic that the current school system is already optimal and anything that
isn't perfect must be because we're not applying the current system correctly.
I find it astonishing how many arguments about school fit this classification.

~~~
anamax
> I would rather that 20 kids be able to fly a balloon, and the 21st kid who
> can't read be shuffled off to some other program/classroom to learn to read,
> than for 21 kids to sit in a classroom learning to read when 20 of them
> already know.

So would I, and there's nothing in NCLB that stops that from happening.

> All I had to do was reject the idea that children are all identical and if
> they aren't being exposed to the exact same education each then they are
> being misserved.

Good for you, but again, this has nothing to do with NCLB.

> has to take as axiomatic that the current school system is already optimal

Strawman. No one claims that.

I'm not saying that NCLB can't be improved, let alone that it is perfect. I'm
merely pointing out that it doesn't have certain flaws.

In some sense, I'm "old school" - I think that it helps a lot if you know
where you actually are and where you want to end up before you decide what
direction to go. Heck - I even think that it's useful to know what has been
tried before and what happened.

No, that's not nearly as much fun as describing utopia's outcomes as a plan
but ....

~~~
jerf
"So would I, and there's nothing in NCLB that stops that from happening."

I don't care what's causing it, because something is. What label you stick on
it, I don't care. NCLB was merely a small course correction sitting on top of
a fundamentally broken system and I reject your attempt to frame my argument
as anti-NCLB. I'm talking about the whole _system_.

~~~
anamax
> I reject your attempt to frame my argument as anti-NCLB.

That "framing" was yours; if it wasn't what you intended.... I'll quote.

> Right, high altitude balloon flying is not on the standardized test that all
> government schools are judged by since the "No Child Left Behind" act. > All
> government school teachers now have to "teach" to the test and can't waste
> time on projects like this.

------
RiderOfGiraffes
See also: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1505799>

This isn't a duplication, it's out own jgc attempting to do the same thing.

------
jolan
I prefer the weaponized version myself:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_balloon>

------
aw3c2
Wow, if you visit the gallery without Javascript enabled of Flash enabled you
get a simple single page with all the content. Time to thank the webmasters.

------
foulmouthboy
This is great and all, but I'm not sure how they managed to get a cell phone
with GPS, a digital camera and an iPad all for under $200.

~~~
jonknee
I assume they had all those (all really common) and the $200 was for the stuff
like balloon and gas that aren't common and/or reusable.

------
ck2
I think it's great that kids are learning like this but what is the chance of
danger to aviation out of curiosity?

~~~
asmithmd1
Pretty slight. The whole thing had a mass of around 2 lbs and the electronics
were mounted in a Styrofoam cooler. Although it is probably not a good idea to
launch it right at an airport.

As long as your payload is under 4 lbs there are virtually no requirements.
Here is an excerpt of FAA FAR 101 <http://www.eoss.org/pubs/far_annotated.htm>

Canadian geese are demonstrably a much greater threat.

------
blhack
> _With help from iPad_

Does apple actually _pay_ them to print things like this?

~~~
w1ntermute
Of course not, people will do it for free because of the RDF.

------
daeken
Wow, I did a double-take while reading this; I just moved back to
Chambersburg, PA, the town they launched this from. Awesome stuff!

~~~
vollmond
Ok, now I have to read the article. My wife has family in Shippensburg...

------
albemuth
s/ballon/balloon/

------
jlcgull
Nice job, but the headline is somewhat misleading... it is _not_ a 100k foot
balloon, but a balloon that reached 100k feet.

My first impression was of a really long balloon tube. :)

~~~
asmithmd1
Thanks, I edited the headline

------
duffbeer703
What a great school project!

