Launch into more: Gloversville school club prepares students for more than careers in STEM (New York)

Once a weather balloon is launched – payload attached – Gloversville Middle School science teacher Chris Murphy is behind the wheel, ready to drive to wherever the landing site might be. In the backseat are students following the airship on computers and punching in data that helps determine his directions.

The advisor for the school district’s High Altitude Achievement club has been going on these adventures with students since 2013, and ham radio operators along the route and someone at a home base help direct, too. The experience varies from a car caravan to a single vehicle, and from students on a second or third launch to their very first. The seventeenth, and most recent launch, on March 17 was, however, a first. It was the beginning of a launching era including eighth graders in the experience.

Read more – Leader-Herald: