Junior high school students will take part in a stratospheric balloon experiment arranged by the Canadian Space Agency. This is historic as they become the youngest students to do so. The lightning probe payload will take temperature, humidity, and magnetic force and direction readings. It will also collect samples of certain gases at high altitudes.
Jamie Parkinson, a teacher at Wilfrid Laurier School, said that in addition to benefiting from getting real data from their experiments, students will gain valuable engineering, manufacturing, project management and logistics skills.
“They will also gain experience in managing teams and develop human resource skills that will help them in their future careers,” he said.
The Stratos Project began in 2013. Nine universities, five Canadian science firms, and 110 people have since participated. York University and Montreal’s École de technologie supérieure are also taking part in the Canadian program. The experiments will take about ten hours to complete and the balloons will fly at an altitude of 36 kilometers (23 miles).
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