High School Students as Teachers, Researchers, and Mission Leaders: Collaborative Learning Through a Weather Balloon Launch

Members of Concord-Carlisle Weather Services became researchers, teachers and mission leaders as they collaborated with faculty and other high school students in all aspects of planning and implementing a weather balloon launch. CCWS students helped judge a 9th grade experiment-design contest to determine which experiments went up with the balloon; worked with IT staff and community volunteers on technical aspects of the launch; visited a third grade class to engage students in meteorology experiences related to the launch; and coordinated public outreach through social media and traditional media. In doing so, CCWS helped create an authentic learning experience that went well beyond the meteorology domain. Further, students were able to extend the benefits of the project to the larger community, who were able to follow the launch in real-time and learn about the results from the student-experimenters. This project served as a learning platform for students to become highly involved and motivated in project design and data-collection, as well as collaborative learning that fully engages students and the community in the process.