Atmospheric Teaching Experiment at Virginia Tech

Atmospheric Teaching Experiment at Virginia Tech We are a team of Virginia Tech students that launches a high altitude balloon to inspire kids and engage them in science, engineering and mathematics.

The Atmospheric Teaching Experiment (ATEx) at Virginia Tech is a high altitude balloon educational outreach program for elementary and middle school students in Virginia. The balloon launch serves as a focal point for a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum developed and taught by the ATEx team. Students are engaged in pre-launch and post-launch workshops and get to in

teract with data collected by the systems on-board the balloon including atmospheric imagery, temperature profiles, pressure profiles and more. Through this coupled educational program architecture, the ATEx teams' goal is to improve students' testing scores, interest in STEM fields and, more importantly, knowledge of key STEM concepts by making the subject matter tangible and fun. The team consists of an outreach group responsible for developing the curriculum, and a design group responsible for the design, manufacture, launch, and recovery of the balloon system. Members of both outreach and design groups engage in teaching. The team is currently comprised of about 24 Virginia Tech students, and the majority of the team is comprised of students pursuing science or engineering degrees. Current Sponsors
-Virginia Tech Student Engineers' Council
-American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Region 1
-The Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering at Virginia Tech
-AIAA Hampton Roads Section
-The Bacon Family

Our payload was successfully recovered yesterday evening by several of our team members. Not surprisingly, it landed in ...
04/30/2017

Our payload was successfully recovered yesterday evening by several of our team members. Not surprisingly, it landed in a tree about 30 feet above the ground -- fortunately our secondary cut-down system worked as intended and we were able to get it down!

Today's flight was a success! Our payload has landed in Jefferson National Forest near New Castle, VA, and our chase tea...
04/29/2017

Today's flight was a success! Our payload has landed in Jefferson National Forest near New Castle, VA, and our chase team is en route.

04/26/2017

Get excited! We are planning to have another weather balloon launch this Saturday, April 29th!

RSVP for this event at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BJNB5FL.

Swing by for free food and fun activities!

Come watch us launch a weather balloon with our payload containing various sensors! We plan to have many exciting activities including a gum drop structure challenge, making mini Cartesian divers, playing with non-Newtonian fluid, and trivia about the scientific method and the upper atmosphere!

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05/09/2016

Update: Unfortunately the second launch was cancelled due to complications with recovery of the first payload. We are still in the works of recovering the payload along with the 360 camera and footage. Keep posted for another update.

04/15/2016

Launch update! We will be postponing the launch of our first payload to ensure our sensors are fully functional. The launch of the 360 camera will still take place next Saturday April 23, 9am - 2pm at Kentland Farms (weather permitting), and the launch of our data-based payload will take place the following Saturday April 30. We hope to see you there!

04/11/2016

Glad to announce that ATEx's launch is currently scheduled for this Saturday (April 16th) from 9am to 2pm at Kentland Farms! Come out to watch our weather balloon launch and enjoy the fun activities!

09/26/2015

The Virginia Science Festival is going on from 10am to 3pm in the first floor of Newman Library and the Moss Art Center! ATEx will be here in the Newman Library location. Come out and enjoy all the activities!

09/06/2015

Our first meeting is today at 2pm in Randolph 221. Hope to see many new members!

09/04/2015

Get excited for Gobblerfest today from 4pm-8pm on the Drillfield! Come check out our booth underneath the tethered weather balloon live-streaming GoPro video footage!

Here is some excellent footage of the launch event and of Hokie Bird's flight - Big shout out and thanks to Evan Lewis f...
05/14/2015

Here is some excellent footage of the launch event and of Hokie Bird's flight - Big shout out and thanks to Evan Lewis for putting this together!

-Did some filming for a balloon launch event. -The group is known as: Atmospheric Teaching Experiments -(ATEx) launched a balloon with a payload of all kinds...

Payload recovered! A big thank-you to the friendly family who provided the runway.Our chase team is currently checking t...
05/02/2015

Payload recovered! A big thank-you to the friendly family who provided the runway.

Our chase team is currently checking the payload and congratulating Hokie Bird on another successful mission to near-space!

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Blacksburg, VA

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