High-Level Project Summary
In accordance with our name, we are allowing anyone in the public who are keen to see our planet without flying in a rocket, to develop their own high-altitude balloon (HAB). We have developed a lesson plan in terms of an interactive slide online. This way everyone can build their own HAB and get a glimpse of near space experience. This lesson plan focuses on building a high quality HAB without burning a hole in the pocket of the builder. This lesson plan can also be utilized in educational institution to guide the students in their first HAB. This is important to expand the interest of students in space exploration so that we may mold a future space explorer.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
What does the project do and how it works?
The interactive online website serves as a guide to students in building a HAB. The website consists of several itinerary, which provides student knowledge about the history and the science behind HAB before giving the students the bill of items and guide them to assemble, launch, track and retrieve the HAB.
Benefits of this project and our hope to achieve
Since the lesson plan is developed with a mixture of pictorial guide and wording, students can easily refer and understand them as 50% of their brain is involved in visual processing. According to research, 70% of children's sensory receptors are in their eyes and visuals increase willingness to read by 80%. Moreover, kids follow instructions with visuals 323% better than pure text instructions. With this project, we hope to expose students to the possibility of discovering space and not limit their curiosity to what is only in Earth.
Tools used
For this lesson plan we used figma, an interface design tool to make this project a lot more interactive for students.
Space Agency Data
I have used several data from High Altitude Science to understand the materials needed to build an HAB. The Colombia Scientific balloon page has mainly inspired me for this project. As mentioned before, since our hometown rarely has this exposure of getting to know that we can actually see near space easily with the technology we have today. In that website we can see the research and attempt made to educate us on types of balloon that can be used to build a HAB
Hackathon Journey
Our Space App experience and what we learnt?
We would definitely describe the Space Apps experience as challenging but fun. This is our first hackathon and the exposure of information which are hard to find was definitely rewarding. We learn to think outside of the box a lot as we had to find several items as a substitution for the proper high altitude balloon. We also learn to consider many aspects that are unrelated to building a HAB like the flight air system. We should ensure our HAB will not disrupt the flight route of the plane by getting permission from the government's aviation department.
What is our inspiration to choose this challenge?
Our team decided to choose the challenge as we love to develop something that is low in cost. Imagine a student in a household or a country who can not afford building a HAB just because their budget. It would be a shame for the people to not be able to discover something amazing by themselves. Thus, by substituting the expensive items to simpler ready made item that cost low then the original production price. Everyone will be able to attempt to launch a HAB an see the near space with their own experience.
Our approach to develop this project
Our main approach for this project is by continuous research on the materials and the methods in building a professional HAB. We then find substitute for the item used which are in lower price range and easily attainable. We then develop a lesson plan , First explaining the history and science behind developing a HAB . Then we include a step by step lesson plan with illustration for student to easily follow through. Lastly, we provide bill of material which could be bought and its estimation budget.
Setbacks and challenges
Communication barrier since the hackathon is entirely online, it hard to communicate with each of the member and find a common time to meet via zoom call. Furthermore, some team members have poor network connection which disrupts the work process.
Appreciation
We would like to thank Nasa Space App Challenge Hackathon organizers for giving us the opportunity to develop a project in the hopes to expose this project to the public. We would also like to thank our educational institution for informing us regarding this challenge.
References
- https://www.overlookhorizon.com/flight-safety/
- https://launchwithus.com/lwu-blog/2015/12/29/space-camp-lesson-3-flight-path-prediction
- http://habhub.org/calc/
- http://predict.habhub.org/
- https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1005/1/012048/pdf
- https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/189
- https://www.instructables.com/Make-a-High-Altitude-Balloon-Tracker-Arduino/
- https://medium.com/loonar-technologies/faa-101-how-to-legally-get-your-high-altitude-balloon-to-near-space-742a0acf0c45
- https://firefighterinsider.com/styrofoam-flammable/
- https://graphicmama.com/blog/visuals-kids-learning-education/
Tags
#website #lessonplan #guide #studentfriendly #educational #DIY #lowcost
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.