cachemakers.org
LOGAN — Technology never stops and it’s the same with the ongoing programs at Cache Makers, a USU Extension 4-H affiliated program for kids that focuses on STEM-related programs.
This Thursday work will begin on a project for girls and young women to build and then launch a weather balloon.
On KVNU’s For the People program on Monday, our guests were co-founder and volunteer mentor Kevin Reeve along with Amelia Kimber, an intern and teacher at Cache Makers, who as a former student got to work on this same project.
“It’s the Reach for the Sky Girls in Space project. I did it back in 2015, me and my sister, we were like 13,14,15-years-old. We got to launch this awesome weather balloon, and now I get to turn around and teach the girls about it. So, yeah, it’s an awesome transition for me,” said Kimber.
Reeve said when they first started the program they didn’t really know just how much interest they would find.
“My friend, Joel Duffin and I when we got together to decide to start this, we figured if we could get 12 kids interested in learning about technology, computer programming, 3-D printing and things like that, to come along with us, we’d be successful. The first year we started, as soon as we started inviting neighborhood kids, we had 17 kids, and within a year we had 100 kids on waiting lists. And we had three groups growing and we didn’t have the room to get all those kids involved,” he explained.
In the Reach for the Sky project, some would consider it an endeavor for USU graduate students, but this will be hands-on for 13 and 14-year-olds.
“And they’ll get ….interfacing sensors, loading the computer code, tweaking that code, programming, interfacing a GPS. And then this year, that we’ve not done before, they’re going to build their own hand-held ground station. As we’re tracking the balloon, and we might have to go 60, 70 miles or farther to get this thing when the payload parachutes back to earth – they’ll be able to see the latitude and longitude of where it is(and) get some of the sensor data.”
Reeve said they’ll even have a camera on-board to record the curvature of the earth as the balloon gets closer to the darkness of space. Launch is scheduled for around May 7-th.
For boys and young men interested in a similar project, there will be one for them in August. Get more details at CacheMakers.org.