The Washington Post reports today on a group of school children at the Potomac School in McLean who used an iPad to help them complete a school project that required them to photograph the curvature of the Earth. What made the project even more challenging was the fact that the group of seventh-and eighth-graders were only allowed to spend $200 on the project.

The school children started by using a digital camera that they set to take photos and shoot video several times per minute. Next they attached a cellphone, with InstaMapper equipped to track the location of the phone. Phone and camera were then placed in a Styrofoam cooler, along with handwarmers to keep the equipment warm in the stratosphere. The whole makeshift kit was then attached to a weather balloon.

The iPad finally got to play its part on launch day when seventh-grader Will Prout used his Dad’s iPad to connect to the internet via 3G so that the children could track the progress of the balloon, via the cellphone in the attached cooler, as they drove around.

“I didn’t expect we would use the iPad that much, but it really saved us,” Will told the Washington Post, with the end result being that the project was a success, and you can see the photographic evidence above to prove it.

Source: Washington Post
Photo credit: Washington Post