Balloons are a Part of Reimagining Success
Ilana Israel Samuels |  Mar. 3, 2023 

Yesterday, Gale Ranch science teacher Kent Heckenlively launched a weather balloon with his students eagerly watching! The balloon was outfitted with two Go-Pro cameras (one for still pictures and one for video), a GPS tracker, and weather station. 

As part of his weather unit for 7th graders, Mr. Heckenlively explained that he teaches his students about the layers of the atmosphere. “I engage them in the concept that we live in the troposphere, which extends to about 12 km (7.5 miles or about 40,000 feet), and where all of Earth's weather occurs.”

The balloon will travel to approximately 30 km (100,000 feet, or about 19 miles) and the temperature will plunge to about -60 degrees Celsius. Because of the extreme cold temperature, this presents an engineering challenge to the mission, which Mr. Heckenlively presents to his students. These extreme temperatures will drain the batteries for the equipment, so the capsule needs to be kept warm. As the students brainstorm ideas, their creativity soars and the sky becomes the limit. Soon they conclude that the warmth is provided by hand-warmers, which is a call-back to their most recent science unit on chemical reactions.

Principal Jenny Torres told us that “although Mr. Heckenlively has not done this unit for a few years due to COVID, I know that the students are always so intrigued and excited in anticipation of the actual day for the weather balloon release, and today is no different.” She continued by saying that “at Gale Ranch and throughout our district, it is deep learning activities like these that allow our youth to reimagine success and dream big.”

This morning, Mr. Heckenlively reported that his GPS tracker worked flawlessly and the balloon had parachuted back to Earth safely. The bad news is that the balloon landed in a rural area of Fresno, so Mr. Heckenlively will soon be making a long drive and hike to recover the capsule and its instruments.

In addition to the weather data and pictures included in this article, gliders are utilized on the balloon which detach from the capsule after the balloon bursts, and their flight is captured by the cameras. This time, Mr. Heckenlively chose Pteranodon fliers. We can’t wait to see the beautiful pictures of these extinct flying reptiles against the blackness of space and the curvature of the Earth, after Mr. Heckenlively gets back from his long drive and hike of course!