HIGH ALTITUDE BALLOONING WITH PRE- AND IN-SERVICE TEACHERS AS A MEANS TO CONNECT AUTHENTIC INVESTIGATION TO K-12 SCIENCE STANDARDS

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) recommend using authentic scientific inquiry and investigation to provide K-12 students opportunities to learn and practice Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Many individual states’ standards follow suit. High altitude ballooning (HAB) offers opportunities for students and teachers to design science experiments, construct payloads for collecting research data from tropospheric and stratospheric altitudes, and participate in balloon launch and recovery field experiences. Post launch and recovery, the participants test their research hypotheses by examining, refining, plotting, and interpreting raw data. HAB investigation is not limited to atmospheric and geoscience applications; it also provides prospects for interdisciplinary topic exploration and consideration of NGSS cross-cutting concepts like cause and effect, stability and change, systems, and patterns. Involving pre-service and in-service STEM and elementary teachers in HAB models activities and experiences they may then use in their classrooms with their students.

A small group of teachers and teacher candidates participated in a HAB activity wherein they designed investigations to meet specific middle or high school state and national science standards. Each participant worked with a partner to select science standards to meet by designing an investigation to yield data appropriate for analysis in a middle or high school classroom. The investigations modeled activities K-12 students might identify and provided teachers experience preparing them to facilitate instruction and payload design for use in their future classrooms and with their future students. Several of the teachers participated in the launch and recovery of the HAB materials, and all students manipulated, refined, and analyzed the collected data. The teacher-derived investigations included using sensors with dataloggers, probes, and the inclusion of materials within payloads as components of controlled experiments. Examples of the standards addressed by the investigations, the findings, and classroom contexts for use will be shared. Survey data about the participants’ perspectives will also be shared.