Still-amazing middle school kids get to see the door to space
stamptrol
Posts: 1,731
Hello all,
During the fall and winter I've volunteered with this group of Grade 6, 7, 8 enrichment kids at our local Bliss Carman Middle School.
In planning the project, I've led sessions on map reading, dead reckoning, programming ( with Stamps, of course) and the theory of GPS and the difficulty of finding something after letting it go.
My final donation to the project was a SPOT locator.
So, on May 29, 2014 the system was sent aloft on an absolutely clear, still, morning with all the appropriate pomp and notification of government agencies.
In the run up to launch, nobody noticed the SPOT had gone to "stopped" mode and the launch and much of the ascent was so smooth, no tracking data was being received. Luckily, the burst point some 4.5 hours later and subsequent entanglement of the balloon and payload jarred the SPOT into life and recovery turned out to be ridiculously simple. About 40 miles away in the backyard of the only human habitation on a sparsely populated country road.
http://youtu.be/PK6ics2CnvA
Cheers,
During the fall and winter I've volunteered with this group of Grade 6, 7, 8 enrichment kids at our local Bliss Carman Middle School.
In planning the project, I've led sessions on map reading, dead reckoning, programming ( with Stamps, of course) and the theory of GPS and the difficulty of finding something after letting it go.
My final donation to the project was a SPOT locator.
So, on May 29, 2014 the system was sent aloft on an absolutely clear, still, morning with all the appropriate pomp and notification of government agencies.
In the run up to launch, nobody noticed the SPOT had gone to "stopped" mode and the launch and much of the ascent was so smooth, no tracking data was being received. Luckily, the burst point some 4.5 hours later and subsequent entanglement of the balloon and payload jarred the SPOT into life and recovery turned out to be ridiculously simple. About 40 miles away in the backyard of the only human habitation on a sparsely populated country road.
http://youtu.be/PK6ics2CnvA
Cheers,
Comments
This is an absolutely wonderful project! The video is just fantastic. Thanks so much for posting the link here.
Please extend congratulations to your team at Bliss Carman Middle School from the folks at Grace Middle School in Louisiana were I teach and serve as chaplain (and robotics club leader)!
I'm told the 2-camera video is being re-edited and a revised version will appear shortly.
I'll post the link when I have it.
Tom Sisk