Vivify STEM Blog
Top 10 STEM Space Activities
Ready to launch your students into some space STEM activities? Read on to explore our top space-themed STEM activities. These activities are categorized into our 3 stages of STEM to fit different learning levels.
Solar Eclipse Party and Activities
We have put together some activity suggestions, tips, resources, and an event planning guide to make the most of a Solar Eclipse happening near you! We also have a FREE solar eclipse paper circuit lesson in our STEM Explorer Lesson Library!
The Best STEM Challenge Ever
Join us as we give you all the details about our popular Space Lander STEM Challenge and link up with some other great STEM educators sharing the BEST STEM CHALLENGE EVER!
Teachers love the Space Lander STEM challenge because the students are completely engaged. Students not only learn, but deeply understand the engineering design process, key science concept, and math standards all while improving their soft skills involved in teamwork.
Teaching Space Inspires Youth
Every child has looked up at the twinkling stars on a clear night and wondered about the vastness above. The night sky captures a child's imagination and leads to profound thoughts and questions about our place in the world. The need to explore and discover is a common thread among humans, and the greatest unknowns lay in the night sky above us. Giving students a window into the beauty of space and teaching the journey of humankind's exploration of other worlds is a powerful tool to inspire and engage an interest in science and engineering.
Back To School Sale
It is Back to School Sale time on TeachersPayTeachers.com! August 3-4 only, save up to 28% off site-wide! For a treasure trove of products to boost your students’ knowledge of all things S.T.E.M., head over to our store and check out all that we have to offer.
I’ll give you a brief tour of five of our best sellers that you and your students will love:
Weather Balloon Launch: Conclusion!
I know you have been waiting on pins and needles on the update from the last balloon launch failure! The students were very disappointed in the lost data, but they learned a valuable lesson of engineering. Failure is an integral part of all engineering, and it provides an opportunity to learn and try again!
Weather Balloon Launch: Recovery Drama
After a successful launch, the balloon team was on fire! We had just successfully launched a balloon into the stratosphere, and everyone was jumping from excitement. But very quickly our enthusiasm turned to dread as we had yet to receive a GPS signal. We went from the high of releasing the balloon to a state of depression as we anxiously refreshed the webpage, hoping the GPS would come through. Without a signal, all hope was lost for recovering the balloon.
Weather Balloon Launch: Launch Day!!
At 8:30 AM, after delicious breakfast tacos, the students and the high school film crew, drove to the launch site. We had a welcome party waiting at the park including teachers, school staff, media, and a local celebrity! Bill Taylor, weatherman of KENS5, brought his daughter to witness the launch and cheer us on. He even documented the event on his Facebook page, which garnered almost 20,000 views!
Weather Balloon Launch: Preparing for Launch Day
As the launch day approached, we started getting nervous! How were we going to pull this off? So many variables seemed to be out of our control so we focused on what we could control. Preparation is key! Here are some highlights as we prepared for the balloon launch:
Weather Balloon Launch: Mission Control
As we continued in our adventure into HAB (High Altitude Ballooning), our main challenge was channeling 50 eager middle school students into productive work! We decided to tackle this by splitting students into 4 teams based on the main tasking involved. Each team was lead by a Director and Project Manager. Below is a description of each team.
Weather Balloon Launch: Getting Started with High Altitude Ballooning
The best approach to this project, especially for beginners, is to purchase a kit from several companies that are dedicated to weather ballooning. These companies provide you with most of the supplies required along with instructions on building, launch, and recovery. Two companies to check out are: High Altitude Science and Stratostar.
Weather Balloon Launch: What happens to bacon at 100,000 feet?
To begin our journey of launching a weather balloon, I started with a quick YouTube search of “weather balloon launch” leading to over 17,000 results. I was amazed at the incredible footage and especially by what people sent to the stratosphere: paint balls, marshmallows, action figures, bacon, crickets, beer, and even a hamburger! You can check out the footage of the “10 Weird Things Humans Have Sent to the Stratosphere” here.