Schulinterner Wettbewerb: Auf in die Stratosphäre!

Flying high

Hey! We are 15 girls from Ursuline Grammar School in Cologne, Germany.

Next year we are going to start a stratosphere balloon to make some experiments like "How does music sound at a height of 35km?"

On this website you can find everything about our project and you can give us your feedback.

About us:

We are an all girls' grammar school in Cologne, Germany, called "Ursulinenschule".

Our school was founded in 1639. It has grades 5 to 12 and students are between 10 and 18 years old. So we are an old school, but we are interested in the latest technology. That's why we have an elective subject called "Research & Develop" (Forschen & Entwickeln).

In our course we are 15 girls aged 13 or 14. We focus on issues concerning aerospace.

We wanted to take part in a competition, but we couldn`t find any that was suitable, so we had an idea for a project of our own which involves sending a balloon into the stratosphere.

Our project:

We will send a balloon filled with helium and with different experiments on board into the stratosphere. The stratosphere is the layer of the atmosphere which starts at a height of 35km (?114,830 feet). It's rather cold up there: -55°C (-67°F). There is almost no air density and you can see the darkness of space.

We will measure the air pressure and the temperature up there. But there will be space for more experiments, that's why we are preparing a competition, which is open to all our students from 8th grade to 11th grade. The students who want to take part in the competition will have to propose experiments they think are interesting to do 35km above ground.

A jury of experts from outside our school will decide which are the best experiments. These will be sent up into the stratosphere. The five groups with the best projects will get a prize (value: 100€-300€) and a starter kit which our course will prepare. In our "probe" we will also have two cameras that are going to send live pictures of the darkness of space and the curved surface of the earth as well as the descent and the landing of the probe. We want to have photo from space with our school logo in the foreground. And of course in order to analyze the collected data we will have to track the probe using the GPS signals it will send while descending to earth.

Timetable