3rd graders launch hot air balloons with help from NASA, BloomSky & Teachers

On Friday, Sept. 25th, Blackford third graders launched hand-made hot-air balloons. They've been working on the project for three weeks, learning the engineering design process along with lessons about weather, climate, and graphing.

Teachers Anupana Gupta and Julie Goo developed the idea for the project after participating in the NASA 21st Century Teacher Academy this past summer.  Support from NASA and donated weather devices from BloomSky helped all of Blackford’s third grade teachers incorporate real-world problem-solving strategies into lessons. The students have been graphing the daily temperature to determine the best time of day to launch a hot air balloon, studying effective designs, and working in groups to create and test their own creations.

The activity is part of the school’s focus on STEAM education—integrating Science, Technology Engineering, Arts and Mathematics into the curricula.