These workshops are offered for high school teachers of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
The Flight Experiments workshop offers hands-on, repeatable experience with suborbital and orbital experiment design and launch processes. Participants will build, launch, track, retrieve, and analyze captured data from weather balloon experiments which can be recreated within a typical classroom budget. Teachers will learn about commercial spaceflight, suborbital and glider and balloon flight, meteorology, basic glider controls, basic instrumentation, control surfaces, and simple pre-made instruments that will be flying with teachers in gliders and on weather balloons. They will also learn about pressure change, accelerometers, and dosimeters. The experience will culminate with teachers practicing what was learned during the week as they launch their own weather balloons.
The workshops have been held at:
NASA Ames, summer 2012
Palmdale CA, summer 2013
Columbus GA, on July 21-25, 2014
Palmdale CA, summer 2015
Forest Hills High, NYC, November 2016
Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum, January 2017