A Lesson In Air Density And Flight

By Eliza Hallabeck

Students in Don Ramsey’s technology education class learned how air density affects flight, on Thursday, February 2, when class after class released hot air balloons outside the school.

The lesson, Mr Ramsey said, incorporated the use of math, science, and the study of weather. The students also had to work in teams to fix any holes or issues in the balloons before launching them outside.

Students also monitored air temperature using an infrared censor.

“It’s pretty cool,” said eighth grader Justin Hill, who was working with fellow eighth grader Billy Cosgrove to find and fix any holes in the balloon the pair was about to launch.

Three eighth grade classes launched balloons on Thursday, according to Mr Ramsey, and all groups had flawless launches, with perfect weather conditions for buoyancy and retrieval.

The study, Mr Ramsey said, applies to many subject areas, including social studies, art, language arts, but especially math and science with patterns, volume, density, meteorology, and navigation. 

“I am grateful that I can just gloss over such things in a short time period to sensitize kids to the potential of interdisciplinary learning,” Mr Ramsey said following the event. “They just love this kind of stuff because it allows them to engage in ‘action learning.’  I call it ‘Learning with Moxie!’”