Space mission at Kells & Connor

Pupils from Kells and Connor Primary School are counting down to lift off on their very own mission to the edge of space!
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Feb 2015, 14:42 BST
Kells and Connor PS pupils Ella McKay, Chloe Smyth, Kelly Weir, Rachel McCaughey and Amy Houston along with teacher Miss Jill Bartley who will be launching a helium balloon which will be sent to the upper atmosphere. INBT08-203ACKells and Connor PS pupils Ella McKay, Chloe Smyth, Kelly Weir, Rachel McCaughey and Amy Houston along with teacher Miss Jill Bartley who will be launching a helium balloon which will be sent to the upper atmosphere. INBT08-203AC
Kells and Connor PS pupils Ella McKay, Chloe Smyth, Kelly Weir, Rachel McCaughey and Amy Houston along with teacher Miss Jill Bartley who will be launching a helium balloon which will be sent to the upper atmosphere. INBT08-203AC

The Year Seven class recently won a prize to send a 2m helium balloon attached to a video camera and a tracking device into the upper atmosphere.

The prize was awarded by ‘Canvas VLE’ who challenged primary pupils throughout the UK to explain why they felt they would like to win the prize. The Kells & Connor pupils developed a short video entry which was picked as one of the UK winners.

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Now, the team are looking forward to seeing what the school and their homes look like from above. The prize includes a HD Video Camera which will record footage of the release floating skywards. The balloon is expected to burst in the upper atmosphere before falling back to earth and be collected using the tracking device.

Principal, Mr Roy McClelland, said: “The potential imagery is stunning. The pupils will be very busy planning and organising the ‘mission’, watching weather patterns and getting permission for the release.

“ We aim to share the work on our website and have had an offer of support from the STEM (Science Technology Engineering Maths ) Module team who will assist in getting this project off the ground! There will be great learning and fun as we prepare for take off.”

After over-seeing the competitive judging process, Kenny Nicholl, Director EMEA Sales at Canvas by Instructure, commented, “Canvas received incredible applications from schools all across the UK, and our winners were chosen based on their creative submissions, which captured our philosophy for innovation. Picking our winning space cadets was no easy feat for our panel of experts.”