Over the upcoming weeks a number of our VCE STEM students and staff will be involved in preparing and launching a high altitude balloon (HAB) into the earth’s stratosphere. This event is planned as a part of the 2019 Science Week and is supported by the Melbourne Catholic Education Office’s Science and Innovation Project Office.
An HAB lifts to a region of the stratosphere known as Near Space, which spans between 20km and 100km above the surface. Sending sensors to collect data from the edge of the Earth's atmosphere will allow our MLMC students the unique opportunity to run experiments in some extreme conditions.
Students will be involved in planning the event, sourcing and setting up the equipment and coding computerised sensors to collect data for a series of student designed experiments. Mr Parlas and Mrs Faulkner have recently observed a group of researchers from the University of New South Wales sending an HAB into near space. They were privileged to spend a day observing the various steps involved in such a mission including launching, chasing and retrieving equipment.
Why is it exciting? Our HAB will be entering a region of space that no one reaches on a plane. The students will be recording data that is not readily available and collecting real scientific information just like NASA. They will apply their science, mathematics and technology skills to a real world scenario and in the process learn more about those discipline areas. They will also learn aspects of the important skills of time management, teamwork, communication, planning as well as critical and creative thinking.
