Balloons
Students release a hot air balloon.
Students follow the steps of the engineering design process as they design and construct balloons for aerial surveillance. After their first attempts to create balloons, they are given the associated Estimating Buoyancy lesson to learn about volume, buoyancy and density to help them iterate more successful balloon designs. Applying their newfound knowledge, the young engineers build and test balloons that fly carrying small flip cameras that capture aerial images of their school. Students use the aerial footage to draw maps and estimate areas.
Engineers apply the principles of buoyancy to design many useful items, such as boats and hot air balloons. Engineers and scientists often employ balloons to take atmospheric measurements or gather data in sensitive, dangerous or remote areas. Balloons can fly much higher than airplanes, beyond the first layer of the Earth's atmosphere (up to 37 km or 120,000 ft high), which is high enough to see the Earth's curvature. Because balloons are filled with gases naturally found in our atmosphere and do not require fuel, they are a "green" way to gather atmospheric data! Those with GPS tracking systems and tags can be returned to the launching organization for re-use of their components.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain why hot air balloons fly and boats float.
- Design and build a hot air balloon that can fly.
- Describe the steps of the engineering design process.