REGISTRATION DEADLINE

June 3, 2022

WHO IS THIS FOR?

Teachers and educators in Wyoming who are interested in learning more about the Wyoming Space Grant’s high-altitude balloon program

DESCRIPTION

Since 2014, the Wyoming NASA Space Grant has run a very successful K-12 high-altitude balloon outreach program. Historically, this program has consisted of one-day balloon launch events intended to generate interest and excitement in STEM among the K-12 students involved. These students, with help from their teachers, are given the freedom to choose the items, materials, and/or experiments that they would like to send up to near-space with the balloon. Once the balloon is launched, students can then track it while in flight and help recover the payload after it falls back to Earth. The entire experience promotes a hands-on, project-based learning environment and allows students the opportunity to participate in a real-world science experiment.

While this approach has generally worked really well, we have recently started exploring other ways to help grow the program and improve the science and educational content of these high-altitude balloon events. In this workshop, participants will learn more about the Wyoming NASA Space Grant, our balloon program, and the various ballooning-related educational opportunities that we currently offer. Participants will engage in hands-on activities and open discussion throughout and will be able to provide feedback. To highlight the workshop, we will conduct an actual balloon flight that will carry participant-built payloads to near-space.

DATES & LOCATION

July 26–28, 2022
University of Wyoming, Laramie

COST

The workshop is FREE to attend! Participants are responsible for their own travel and lodging.

DETAILS

We will be holding this in-person workshop at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. It is open to teachers and educators based in Wyoming. We are hoping to accommodate ~20 participants, so space may be limited (we will have a wait list if necessary). No prior ballooning experience required. However, we do hope to have a group of participants with varying degrees of ballooning experience.

Workshop attendees will learn about:

• Educational opportunities available through the Wyoming NASA Space Grant
• The history and future of our high-altitude balloon program
• The entire high-altitude balloon process from start to finish (i.e., payload development, logistics, launch, tracking, and recovery)
• Ways to implement balloon payload development, experiment design, and data analysis in the classroom

Workshop attendees will also be hands-on participants in a high-altitude balloon launch, which will include:

• Designing and building a payload as part of a team
• Weather forecast evaluation and flight prediction
• Balloon inflation and launch
• Flight tracking
• Balloon chase and payload recovery
• Analysis, documentation, and presentation of data/results

PERKS

• Teachers can earn 1.5 PTSB credits
• Most meals will be provided
• Group dinner & planetarium show
• Campus lab tour (tentative)

TRAVEL & LODGING

Participants are responsible for their own travel and lodging arrangements. There are multiple lodging options fairly close to UW. Most of these are to the east along Grand Ave and will probably require at least a 20-minute walk to our workshop location on campus. Parking permits will be available at check-in if you would rather drive to campus.

Here are a few hotel suggestions and their walking distances to Prexy’s Pasture at the center of campus:

• Hilton Garden Inn  (1 mile, ~20 minutes)
• Holiday Inn  (1.2 miles, ~25 minutes)
• Quality Inn  (1.7 miles, ~30 minutes)
• Hampton Inn  (2 miles, ~35 minutes)

COVID-19 CONSIDERATIONS

As of March 2022, the University of Wyoming no longer requires that masks be worn on campus, either indoors or outdoors, except on UW transit buses. Thus, we are planning for masks to be optional at all times during the workshop. All social distancing requirements have also been lifted. You can read the latest UW COVID-19 policy here.