Programs Utilize Sounding Rockets And Scientific Balloons
Students and educators nationwide will have the opportunity to
interact with NASA engineers and scientists through two newly
developed NASA flight initiatives. The programs, developed at
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, are designed to give
students and educators hands-on flight experiences using NASA
sounding rockets and scientific balloons.
The Wallops Rocket Academy for Teachers and Students (WRATS)
will provide high school participants with a technical flight
experience to reinforce science, technology, engineering and
mathematics concepts. Teachers and students will participate in
person or virtually in authentic, hands-on experiences based on
NASA's sounding rocket engineering and science data collection.
WRATS will include interactive Web based data to give students
and educators lessons in physics and engineering. Teachers also
receive resources to integrate the data into classroom lessons.
Selected participants in other NASA education projects will have
the opportunity to attend a rocketry flight week June 19 - 24, at
Wallops. Participants will learn about the dynamics of launch, safe
flight operations and view a NASA Terrier-Orion sounding rocket
liftoff on Thursday, June 23.
Terrier-Orion Sounding Rocket NASA Image
The Wallops Balloon Experience for Educators (WBEE) provides
opportunities for high school teachers to fly experiments on
scientific flights. WBEE will build upon an existing partnership
between NASA and the Louisiana Space Consortium, which has
developed student outreach programs, including the High Altitude
Space Platform (HASP) and Louisiana Aerospace Catalyst Experiences
for Students (LaACES).
Since 2002, the programs have flown multiple missions involving
hundreds of students in undergraduate though post-graduate
programs. WBEE will expand the LaACES platform into secondary
education with a focus on core principles and future partnership
with educators and their institutions. WBEE will involve teams of
selected educators who have participated in other NASA education
projects. They will visit the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility
in Palestine, Texas, for a week-long workshop in July. Participants
will be involved in classroom and hands-on balloon science
activities. The teams will have the opportunity to build and test
their own science payload for a flight to the edge of space under
the direction of NASA and Louisiana Space Consortium personnel.
The WBEE experience culminates with the launch of these payloads
aboard a NASA scientific balloon. WBEE will be an intensive course
involving a broad-based learning experience educators may implement
at their home schools.
Scientific Balloon Launch NASA Image
The Teaching From Space office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in
Houston is partnering with Wallops to provide the flights. The
program continues NASA's investment in the nation's education
programs by supporting the goal of attracting and retaining
students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics
disciplines critical to future space exploration.