Eighth graders fly hot air balloons inside Holt Arena for science project

On Thursday, eighth graders from William Thomas Middle School took hot air balloons to Holt Arena for a science experiment. Students got to design and build scale models before creating the balloons, all the while utilizing science, technology, engineering, and math.

“It’s Sort of a combination between the things we learned this year. Involving fluids, densities, buoyancy, pressure differences,” said Gary Smith, 8th-grade earth science teacher, William Thomas Middle School.

But above all, Smith says it’s a big measurement project. Making sure the right measurements are taken carefully, will ensure that the balloons defy gravity. The event is going on 22 years and flying.

“We’re doing pretty good. Because it already flew and that’s one of the most important things,” said Jobana Rosales, 8th-grade student.

Students did this for a grade and tried to beat the record time of flight which was almost six minutes.

“As far as the time goes, the large cubes are the best in terms of weight to volume. The weight of the material versus the volume,” said Smith.