Science is Fun!

I love this story I read on the Huffington Post yesterday. I love that the ingenuity of this dad. I love that rather than just taking his son to a science museum or watching science shows (both of which are really good things), this dad made science real AND fun for his son through their joint experiential learning. In turning an iPhone into a space craft, the dad taught his son how to think outside the box and find answers to questions himself rather than just relying on someone else's answer.

Make sure to watch the video. It's pretty incredible and you probably haven't seen the Earth from this perspective before.

Father and Son Send iPhone Into Space And Record Incredible Video
Hunter Stuart, The Huffington Post, October 16, 2010

A father and son from Brooklyn, New York sent an iPhone into the stratosphere a few weeks ago to record a video of the earth's curvature.

The two spent eight months researching and testing their homemade craft, which was made of a weather balloon and a styrofoam case for the iPhone, before launching in Newburgh, NY.

The phone apparently braved winds of 100 miles-per-hour and temperatures as cold as 60 below zero (the iPhone was smartly packed with hand warmers).

The recorded video shows the phone reaching a height of 100,000 feet before the balloon burst, plummeting the contraption back to earth, where it landed 30 miles from the launch point, in a tree, where the father and son found it in the dark because of the iPhone's LED light.

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.