Marshall School 6th Graders Participate in Weather Balloon Launch

DULUTH, MN – For the second time in two days, middle school students in Duluth had the opportunity to launch a weather balloon thanks to donations and community support. This time it was 6th grade students at Marshall. The weather balloon project is an opportunity for students to bring their classroom studies in meteorology to the real world and see science in action.  Part of the experience was taking on certain roles in smaller groups that collaborated together on a bigger project.

“Taking that ownership for them is important. The kids that are powering on the cameras, sensors, they’re also the ones who wrangle that data once it comes back. To be able to have that thing, to see the work that they’re putting in, take off into the sky, the numbers that they get back again from the machines that they operated, that they learned about, that’s kind of the goal for this,” said Chris Ibarra, 6th grade teacher at Marshall School.

Some of the roles the students had were things like payload specialists, balloon handlers, and even a safety master.  More schools throughout St. Louis County will have the opportunity to launch their own weather balloons in the coming months.