Up, up, and away in the STEAM Lab

Lucy Shamel and Gus Edwards at work

The 7th grade students are known for their balsa wood bridge building skills in Mr. Dehetre's STEAM lab. Many balsa wood bridges weighing less than an ounce have held over 100 pounds. 

But what do students do once they have their bridge built, tested it, and made a movie documenting their process? There's always something more to learn in STEAM lab. Lucy Shamel and Gus Edwards worked together to build a hot air balloon that actually flies! In the pictures below, they're testing their balloon indoors for leaks, and as you can see there aren't any! Soon we'll be taking the balloon outside with a larger burner to send it up in to the sky.

The students learned several things: 
 1. When the hot air balloon is rising, the air inside the balloon is less dense than the air outside of the balloon. 
2. When the hot air balloon remains level, the air inside the balloon has the same density as the air outside the balloon.
3. When the hot air balloon is going down, the air inside the balloon is denser than the air outside the balloon. 
4. There's always something to learn and learning is fun!