Tackle the ultimate STEM project with this all-inclusive classroom guide to launching a weather balloon PLUS links to a shared Google Drive folder with TONS of extra resources! This guide includes an hour-long training video to help you visualize exactly how to complete this project with your class.

Take your students on an unforgettable journey to the stratosphere! What can be more exciting than launching a balloon to the edge of space and seeing footage of the Earth from above? A weather balloon project (also known as High Altitude Balloon or HAB) involves designing a payload and using a helium balloon to send an experiment up to 100,000 feet into the stratosphere!

Based on 5+ of successful weather balloon experiences with over 300 middle school students, this product is everything you need to design a payload, select an experiment, launch, and recover the balloon from a 100,000-foot journey to the edge of space! We even included an hour-long training video with student project examples and interviews with teachers to help you visualize each step of the process.

Read more about my experience with the weather balloon project with middle school students here. Click here for a supply list.

For this project, students work in teams to understand the science behind the balloon launch, design and build a scientific payload, select the launch site using predictive modeling and weather conditions, launch the balloon, and analyze the collected data. This is the ultimate real-world project. Just substitute “student” for “scientist”, and this is exactly how scientists in industry and government labs send experiments into the atmosphere! 

PLEASE NOTE! Budget: This project requires a minimum of $1,700 in materials, including this weather balloon kit. A complete material list is provided in the product. We highly suggest seeking out local grants to help fund this project for your students. You can read more about ways to secure funding here.

This packet includes:

• Detailed teachers guide with links to resources
• Full guide on the basics of a weather balloon
• Hour-long training video with teacher insight and student project examples
• Explanation of scientific principles of a balloon launch
• List of science experiments and handouts
• Team assignments to simplify classroom management
• Student challenge handouts covering balloon launch and design project basics
• Budget and materials list
• Shared Google Drive with launch logistics, PPT classroom presentations, balloon launch tutorials, checklists, and more!