(Scientific Research Publishing, 2019-02-14) Cheng, Stephen; Gerhard, David; Gendron, Fidji; Ziffle, Vincent
We have been launching high-altitude balloons to engage students in science
since 2013. Our custom balloon kit allows high school teachers and students
to collect environmental data and capture videos. Through our experience
interacting with high school students, we have found that the high-altitude
balloon experiment is an effective tool for inquiry-based learning to introduce
chemistry topics including gas properties, elements and molecules, heat capacity, thermochemistry, electromagnetic radiation, bond breaking and formation, and atmospheric chemical reactions. Examples are given to demonstrate how to incorporate the experiment in high school science classrooms.
