Lower Atmosphere Temperature Profile

Marcelo M F Saba
,
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
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Challenge students to measure the temperature profile of the lower atmosphere
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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

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