Lower Atmosphere Temperature Profile
Marcelo M F Saba
, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
Author ProfileChallenge students to measure the temperature profile of the lower atmosphere
Context
Audience:
high-school students and above
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered:
know few physics concepts like: velocity, temperature
How the activity is situated in the course:
extra curricular activity
National or State Education Standards addressed by this activity?:
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity:
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity:
measurement, analysis of data, interpretation
Other skills goals for this activity:
operating analytical equipment, working in groups, field measurements
Description of the activity/assignment
A temperature profile of the low atmosphere can be measured with a recoverable untethered helium balloon carrying a thermistor, a simple electronic circuit and a sound recorder. This low cost experiment introduces the students to physical concepts such as buoyancy and drag force, as well as to laboratorial practices such as sensor calibration and data plotting and analysis.
Determining whether students have met the goals
If the measurement and interpretation is done, they met the goals
Download teaching materials and tips
- Activity Description/Assignment (Acrobat (PDF) 149kB Nov22 05)
Other Materials
- poster ( 840kB Nov22 05)