Earlier in the semester, another teacher friend told me about a unique opportunity to send ping pong balls into space. John Powell from JP Aerospace in Rancho Cordova, California came up with the idea to send mini projects and experiments known as “pong sats” to the edge of space inside of ping pong balls. Many classrooms have participated in this experiment, creating their own “pong sats”, sending them to space, and then receiving a video of their “pong sats” travels that they can watch when they return to Earth.
By the time I learned about this incredible opportunity there were only 3 spaces left on the September flight. Mrs. Brown and I reserved the spaces and chose to send popcorn in our classroom “pong sats” because we will be sending them to California on Friday September 7, 2012, one day before the Popcorn Festival here in Valparaiso, Indiana. We thought it would be great to send something unique to our community as well as something that we all know about.
The children will work together to make inferences and determine what might happen to the popcorn, how much popcorn should go into each of the three "pong sats," and what the popcorn will be like when it returns to our classroom in Indiana. We feel that this will be a very unique educational opportunity for your children as they make connections not only to their community in Valpo but also to the edge of space!
