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ANNA McCARTNEY/Contributed photo

While this hawk that flew into this window was able to flyaway, many birds are injured and need help.

A hawk is hit by a car orflies into a window. Duck-lings are stranded fromtheir mother. Baby owlsfall out of a tree. If youhave ever wished you’dknown how to handlewildlife emergencies likethese, Tamarack WildlifeRehabilitation and Edu-cation Center is offering aWildlife First RespondersCourse for adults to helpyou identify wildlife inneed of assistance, whento intervene, and how tocapture, stabilize andtransport injured wild-life. A $25 fee for resourcematerialsincludesayear’s

membership. Preregistra-tion is requested at www.tamarackwildlife.org orcall (814) 763-2574 andleave a message with yourname, address and phonenumber.

— Anna McCartney

Classes teach howto tend to wildlife

Every day, the NationalOceanic and AtmosphericAdministration’s NationalWeather Service launchesweather balloons from 102sites to help with weatherforecasting.

The attached radio-sondes land in trees, onbridges and in backyards— sometimes more than200milesawayfromwhereballoons were launched.While they can make somedisconcerting noises andgive off a sulfuric (egg-like)smell,aradiosondeanditsattached flight equipmentareperfectlysafe.Theunitincludes a latex weatherballoon that at launch issix feet wide, a radiosondeandtwine,achemicallightand an orange parachute.

Even though each onehas an addressed, postage-paid return mailbag, theNational Weather Servicerecovers fewer than 20percent of the 75,000 ra-diosondes released yearly.The NWS hopes that witheducation and awarenessof the value and impor-tance of upper-air radio-sondes, more people will

be eager to return them.Returning radiosondes

benefits the environmentand saves taxpayer dollarsby recycling the units forreuse.Ifyoufindaweatherballoonanditsradiosondepackage in your neck ofthe woods, there’s no needto fear; please return it toNOAA’s National WeatherService.

For more informationabout NWS weather bal-loons, visit www.weather.gov/okx/Tour_Weather_Bal-loon

— Anna McCartney

How to respond ifyou find balloon

ANNA McCARTNEY/Contributed photo

Thanks to an Intermediate Unit 5 program, the Regional Science Consortium and PA Sea Grant, these Iroquois SchoolDistrict students are launching a weather balloon that will lift their learning to new heights. Because the district is anRSC member, students received classroom support and funding from an IBM grant and from the Presque IslePartnership for building and launching the balloons.

The sky is not the limitfor students fortunateenough to use it as theirclassroom.

Learning is reachingnew heights for area stu-dents who have launchedweather balloons like theones sent up daily by theNational Oceanic and At-mospheric Administra-tion’s National WeatherService to collect data.

Led by Drew Mortensenand Jill Linton from theNorthwest Tri-County In-termediate Unit, thesestudents are discoveringfirsthandhowdifferenttheworld looks miles abovethe Earth’s surface. “It’simperative that learnersofallageshaveopportuni-tieslikethistoexperimentwith ideas and discoverhowtheycanexpandtheirpersonal horizons,” saidMortensen.

Marissa Schnars, afourth-grade student atIroquois Elementary, wasone of the lucky students.“Doinganexperimentlikethis makes learning aboutscienceandmathfun,”shesaid. The Iroquois SchoolDistrict participated intwo launches in the fall of2014 for elementary andsecondary students withthe help of the RegionalScience Consortium andPennsylvania Sea Grant.

On launch day, the stu-dent balloons are filledwith helium and the fin-ished projects are re-leased into the wide-opensky. The balloons, whichrise quickly, can reach al-titudes up to 100,000 feet(19 miles) while the in-struments on board takevideo; record barometricpressure,temperatureandhumidity; measure speed;and report location.

As the atmosphericpressure falls, it causesthe helium to expand andwhentheballoonsgethigh

enough,theexpandinggasmakesthempop.Aidedbyparachutes, the sciencepayloads then fall backto Earth and the sensorssend data on their loca-tion so search parties can

retrieve them.It’s also not every day

that meaningful learningopportunities fall out ofthe sky and land in yourbackyard. The payloadlaunched on Oct. 8 by the

elementarystudentscamedown 178 miles away nearAddison, N.Y. just northof the Pennsylvania line.It landed in a cornfieldowned by Zoe Spencer’sfamily.OnceDavidBough-ton,PASeaGranteducator,contacted the family, Zoe,a third-grader, couldn’twait to help retrieve it.“The landing was a per-fect learning opportunityfor a new group of youngpeople,” said Boughton.“Zoe was so excited aboutsharing the project withthestudentsatherschool.”

While there have beenadvances in satellite andcomputer technology,weather balloons remaina very significant and in-tegral part of the world’sweather observation net-work. Data on winds, tem-peratures and humidityhelp NOAA forecasterspredict clouds, rain andthe paths of major storms,including severe weatherevents like tornadoes,damaging thunderstormsor high winds.

But as you can see,weather balloons can alsoplay an astronomical rolein getting young peopleexcited about learning.“Project-based activi-ties such as this exposesstudents to new encoun-ters, introduces them toreal-life situations andkeeps them interested inscience, technology, engi-neering and math — skillsets that are highly soughtafterintoday’scompetitiveworld,” said Litton.

For more informa-tion, schools, camps andindividuals can contactMortensen at drew_mortensen@iu5.org orLinton jill_linton@iu5.orgat IU5.

A N N A M c C A R T N E Y , acommunications andeducation specialist forPennsylvania Sea Grant,can be reached by e-mail ataxm40@psu.edu.

Air apparentYoung science students launch weather balloonsBy ANNA McCARTNEYContributing writer

CAMERA ABOARD THE PAYLOAD

A camera in the payload allows students to get a bird’s-eye view of their school, sports fields, neighborhood andPresque Isle Sate Park and Lake Erie.

CAMERA ABOARD THE PAYLOAD

More than 13 miles above the earth, this balloon poppedand the payload started making its return trip with thevideo and other important data the students will use totrack its journey.

DAVID BOUGHTON PA SEA GRANT

Zoe Spencer helped to retrieve the payload from an Oct. 8Iroquois Elementary School launch that reached analtitude of 73,670 feet and landed on her family’s property178 miles away near Addison, N.Y.

Use the daily weather page in your localpaper to learn more about weatherconditions near and far. Find the followingcities listed there: Miami, San Francisco,Houston, Honolulu, Boston, Atlanta,London, Tokyo and Cairo.

Compare their highs and lows. Howdifferent are they from the highs and lowswhere you live? Findthem on a map to seehow close or how farthey are from yourlocation.

NOAA

If you find a NOAA weatherballoon and its radiosonde,return it in the postage-paidreturn mailbag.

Check out these websitesto learn more:

www.noaa.gov/features/02_monitoring/balloon.html

www.weather.gov/okx/Tour_Weather_Balloon

www.paseagrant.org/

What: Wildlife FirstResponders CourseWhere: Borough Buildingat 124 Meadville St.,EdinboroWhen: Tuesday nights6:30-8:30 p.m., Feb. 10,17, and 24 with a snowdate of March 3.

Before you go

Youcanget10freenativeplants if you are one of 250people who own propertyalongElkCreekintheLakeErieWatershedandyouat-tend the Feb. 21 Lake ErieWatershed CooperativeWeed Management Area,LEW-CWMA workshop. Byattending the workshopyou and your property canbenefitfromeducationandfunding programs for con-trolling invasive speciesand you will receive thenative plants. Snacks andbeverages will be served.Please RSVP by Fridayto Marti Martz at 217-9011,Ext. 104, or mam60@psu.edu.

— Anna McCartney

Workshop offersfree native plants

What: Free native plantsWhere: Tom RidgeEnvironmental CenterWhen: Feb. 21 from 9 a.m.to noon.

Before you go

ANNA McCARTNEY/Contributed photo

Property owners along ElkCreek can get 10 free, one-gallon native plants.

6A | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | Tuesday, February 3, 2015