On Thursday, May 30, 2024 Marshall School’s sixth grade class is launched Hilltopper 11. This launch was special for Marshall schools as it was a celebration of launching weather balloons for over ten years.

Dave Johnson, is the science teacher conducting the experiment with the class. He said, it’s great to get kids interested in science with launching weather balloons.

“I think the whole thing here is to do some hands-on science. That really gets kids excited and really interested in science and knowing that they can be a part of it,” Johnson said. “That they can do a science experiment and they can watch what happens.”

The balloon carried a parachute and a wooden frame. On the wooden frame is a flight computer, a Spot GPS, a Go Pro Camera and a fun experiment to see what might happen to a potato chip bags in the cold, low pressure of the stratosphere. 

“Now what it will be fun to do when we retrieve the balloon,” Johnson said. “We’re so lucky if it doesn’t land in the lake, which it’s going to get a little close today. Then maybe you saw in there the experiment we have with the chip bags. I’m really excited about that one. I’m really curious to see which chip bag will last the longest. We’ll go with the highest altitude.”

The balloon will ascend for about 1.25 hours until reaching a little over 25 kilometers in altitude. The balloon will pop then and drift to earth under a small parachute.  The payload should land sometime around 11:30 am somewhere near Maple, Wi. 

“Feel that youthful energy and just to see that excitement, there’s nothing better,” Johnson said. “Then we’ll be able to analyze that data and see what’s the forecast about, what the wind was going to do at all the different layers correct, and what was the pressure happening.”

To see the whole video of the weather balloon’s journey you can watch that here. Also for other stories with Marshall School you can read more here.