Hello Everyone, Our club, the Nashua Area Radio Club, has been working to introduce and generate interest among young people in Amateur Radio. Our club has put together a program of activities for young people and we've had quite a lot of success so far. Our most recent project is one to help young folks in our local schools to build and launch a high-altitude balloon carrying amateur radio. We thought that some of the folks here might be interested in what we are doing. You can see some articles about our project on our blog and on our club website. You can see the latest status on our project here. If you would like to help us by supporting our project, please follow the link near the end of the articles referenced here. Best and 73, - Fred (AB1OC)
The poor mans satellite ! I love it ! good luck guys I work all the satellites I can this is a great thing you are doing all the best 73 Phil KI6PMD ..
73 from KC0LKV the science department at my school launched recently a weather balloon and we tracked using APRS. Students with my help used a Raspberry Pi 3 with APRS shield for the tracking. I have picture on my Google+ page: https://plus.google.com/+AndreaNunziante
Really cool, you have tapped into the young ones interests. Now that's what will keep ham radio going. Wishing you and the kids best of luck and much fun. 73 Art Now the rest of you go call CQ!
Instead of messing around with licenses to attract kids, this is the type of project the ARRL should be promoting and pushing for youth. I recall many eons ago when I lived in W1 I was at the Deer-chester Hamfest (locals know what that is.) Anyways, they had a HS club showing off the project they did where they integrated the ham balloon flight across an entire curriculum for the kids. Different projects came together from all their classes culminating into a launch. The winds were a bit rough that day so I think the balloon made a good effort at reaching the Azores but the kids had a blast. Projects like this with hands on and easily understood results are a great way to show the breadth of ham radio. Great job!
Thank you KT4NR for commenting on our project and for your kind words. I do think that projects like this are the best way to get young people interested in Amateur Radio. Fred, AB1OC
The ARRL conducts teacher workshops, provides instructor materials, awards grant money, supports ISS contacts, and a host of other programs/resources to help teachers bring Amateur Radio to students of various levels. This summer's Institute topics will basic electronics, radio science, microcontroller programming, and basic robotics. The ARRL seems to be doing a lot to promote projects many students will find interesting, educating and fun.
I am aware of the program but NONE of that goes to supporting and teaching about ham radio in a fun way. It does support teaching STEM, which is an important and laudable cause which needs further support. There is a direct need for kits (not in the sense we hams have) that have curricula and components with lesson plans, instructor materials, etc. pertaining to projects such as this balloon launch. Unless those robots are using radio control designed for use on ham bands NONE of what they are teaching involves actual use and deployment of radio gear to kids. The crew in NH I referred to above did this: - Science: studied physics, got their ham radio licenses, built antenna, studied lift of helium balloons versus payload so as to calculate how much was needed - Math: learned formulas for their licenses as well as calculated weight to lift - English: Wrote reports and developed broadsheets about the project as a whole and their individual components - Reading: Lots of material research at various reading levels - Geography: Studied weather and winds, maps of the region So on and so forth. Doing this for model rockets or model cars/planes with ATV would be another very achievable effort. In college kids do this with building satellites. The look on some young kid's face when they make a satellite contact is pretty neat. Especially when you show them the mechanics of what they just achieved. Another example: Years ago (I want to say 20-25 yrs ago in fact as I was a new ham) in QST someone from Wisconsin wrote up a project where different summer camp locations were different planets. One location had a bus painted up like a space shuttle that then had to talk to the planets to learn about them. The kids at the planets researched their planet and were ready to answer different questions about it via radio. The kids had to wait different lengths of time to simulate the time it takes a radio wave to travel from Earth to their destination. While the exact time was not used they did have proportions. They had a mission control as well that played net control and ran the show. Of course there is also the school in NYC that escapes me that integrates ham radio into their curricula. Many others have started doing this. I'd also offer that building working with the Bitx40 or a RaspberryPI WSPR transceiver could form the focus of an entire integrated curricula reinforcing all the above subjects plus Computer Science. This is what the ARRL Education folks should look at. Put the radios in the kids hands. Get them using the gear in a fun way to reinforce what is being taught. Let them know it is fun. Help them get licensed and further their education. Heck my 4yr old (now) can't wait to play radio because I got him his own and he uses it all the time. Its a Discovery Channel thing but man he plays with the code oscillator and calls me on his radio so I can reply on mine (so he thinks <wink>.)
For the most part, teachers write their own lesson plans. They are responsible for presenting the information in a fun way. You might read the reviews of one session: http://www.arrl.org/ti-participants-remarks From the reviews, I infer that the session did show teachers how to construct lessons to present ham radio "in a fun way". Again, teachers seemed to have been presented with the information and resources to put together those "kits". What makes you think they weren't? They provide grants that can "put the radios in the kids hands". That is all the responsibility of the teacher/mentor.
Involving teachers in Amateur Radio projects which promote STEM learning is key. This is arguably the most important part of doing such a project. We are working closely with teachers in several schools here in NH to integrate the science and physics related to our High-Altitude Balloon carry Amateur Radio project into their lesson plans. This is an important part of creating an effective STEM learning experience for the kids involved in the project. An effective combination of classroom work and hands-on learning during a project like this is the goal. Involving teachers in developing and delivering integrated lesson plans which support what you are doing with the kids to make the project happen improves buy-in and learning across the board. See the image above for an example of what an integrated lesson plan for our high-altitude balloon project carrying amateur radio might look like. - Fred, AB1OC
