070222 High School 1
Outcomes
- Define student project outcomes.
- Students have knowledge of process approach to solving design problems.
- Answer student questions about current situation.
- List project constraints.
- List resources available to students.
Agenda
- Setup (10 min)
- Design process (15 min)
- Time line (10 min)
- Situation analysis (10 min)
- Constraints (10 min)
- Resources (10 min)
- Close (5 min)
Handouts/Links
- Design Process
- FAA FARs part 101 - Unmanned free ballooning
- Wikipedia: Earth's atmosphere
- NASA Science Balloons
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Weather site)
- Jet stream analysis site
Tasks
- Create summary of situation analysis
- Type up list of design requirements
- Start researching balloon flight and atmospheric properties
Notes
- What do you want to get out of the class?
- How to use and apply solar power
- What engineering process is
- How scientists do science in teams
- How to utilize research resources
- Learn about environmental affects on circuits
- Design Process
- Ensures that the end product is what you want it to be
- There's a temptation to skip steps, but you probably shouldn't (at least according to class)
- What's the most important step?
- Maybe definition of requirements - to know what end product should look like.
- Maybe knowledge construction - to have a focus on what knowledge is required for project. It's good not to "reinvent wheel" because you don't know what's out there.
- Maybe situation analysis - to know what's available and what of that you can use.
- You might be able to skip parts of steps if parts are not relevant to project. For instance, breaking down to time requirements might not be helpful.
- Time line
- Stage 1 (2 week)
- Stage 2 (4-5 weeks)
- Stage 3 (2-3 weeks)
- Stage 4 (4-5 weeks)
- Situation Analysis
- Four teams - structures, power, imaging, "crazy science"
- Budget - $400
- Launch from central Washington (typical)
- VAST (college) meetings are at 4:30 PM, Mondays, in Engineering Physics 216
- Launch time is about 2-3 hours
- Requirements
- Environmental related (temperature, pressure, wind)
- Vibration (shaking during descent, 200 mph jet stream)
- Shock from hitting ground (impact)
- Background radiation
- Size (mass [6 lbs], and mass/area for FAA regulations)
- Resources available for help
- Google search
- Science-specific search engines
- Wikipedia
- Weather sites (Weather Channel)
- NASA
- High altitude ballooning websites





