BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) — High altitude balloons have been in the news a lot lately. Some foreign, some domestic. If you thought you saw one over Boardman Thursday, you did.

Boardman’s Glenwood Junior High science students helped prepare and launch a balloon this morning. A company called “Launch with us” assisted the students.

The school had to make calls to officials to alert and clear the launch, the balloon is carrying scientific experiments. Seventh-grade science teacher Eric Diefenderfer explains.

“Balloon is gonna be tracked by GPS. It’s gonna fly to about 100,000 feet altitude. There are gonna be cameras recording the flight, recording the experiments to see the effects. Cause our students right now are learning about the properties of our atmosphere. They want to see if will it affect the co2 solution in our balloon, affect the germination of our seeds. There’s lack of life and mold at that altitude so they want to see how fast the bread will mold, compared to another sample. And what the pressure do with the flex-seal, the Sweedish Fish, and the fruit snacks.”

And off it goes, climbing 1000 feet per minute. It was up for 2 hours. Making its way into the stratosphere, above the ozone layer. High enough to be able to see the curvature of the Earth. Hands-on science this morning at Boardman’s Glenwood Junior High today!