A NOTE FROM YOUR NEW SCIENCE TEACHER
I am so happy to be your new science teacher! I promise to do my very best to engage each and everyone of you, in the pursuit of the amazing, thrilling, and challenging year ahead.
In addition to engaging inside the classroom, discovering through inquiry based learning the amazing world of science, each and every day, we will launch our ambitions OUTSIDE the classroom to SPACE! I have launched in the past several years high altitude balloons FOUR TIMES higher that a jet liner-to the very edge of space. At 100,000 feet the atmospheric conditions are similar to the surface of Mars- minus 50 degrees C, 6 millibars of pressure, and almost no oxygen.
And all my students in MVP2, MVP 3, MVP4 and MVP 5 can participate actively in a project I call SPACE EGGS. The idea? Create an experiment, it may be one of several we send to space. Then send it to space!
How do I get kids excited about space exploration?
By launching their coding projects to the edge of space! More than ten years ago I and my students were among the first in Norway to launch a weather balloon to over 30 km in the stratosphere. Since that launch I have been launching balloons almost every year with students-and the results have been fantastic. We have launched a total of six payloads to over 25 km in the stratosphere, each launch requires special permission from agencies such as NLT (Norsk Lufttilsynet) and over a year of planning.
The project is called SPACE EGGS.
The project is called SPACE EGGS.
The idea is that students are to design an experiment-it will be lightweight, it will be placed in a foam payload, inside a little "egg".
There will be room for several Space Eggs. The payload is attached to a ring structure with a video camera and gps software. The balloon parachute, 600 gram balloon, and radar reflector are attached to a nylon cord stretching over five meters in length.
If all the necessary permissions are received, and we reach our goals, the launch is set for the third week in May, 2022, or early June 2022.
If all the necessary permissions are received, and we reach our goals, the launch is set for the third week in May, 2022, or early June 2022.
Picture taken by my students about 100,000 feet in the stratosphere over Southern Norway.