Student-made balloons color gray skies

Danette Goulet

CORONA DEL MAR -- Bright spots popped up in the otherwise gray skies

over Corona del Mar High School early Wednesday as students sent homemade

hot air balloons soaring.

“That was pretty fun. It’s nice and warm over there,” said Donna

Thomas, 13, with a shiver.

While the rain held off, students in Julie Oblouk’s eighth-grade

science class were able to set off tissue paper balloons they had made in

class and track the inflatable crafts’ flight.

During the previous three class sessions, students had made the

balloons by tracing patterns onto three pieces of tissue paper that they

then glued into six panels, said Aumna Igbal, 13.

A wire around the circular opening completed the aircraft, which

students made in teams of two.

“We’re supposed to be figuring out why they go up and come back down

again instead of just going up,” Aumna explained.

And so 35 students, surrounded on all sides by gym classes playing

soccer and softball, stood huddled around Oblouk and a camp stove, as

their aviation works of art were filled one by one with hot air.

“Notice the good construction of this balloon -- it filled up fast,”

Oblouk told the class.

When the tissue paper and glue creation was expanded to its fullest

capacity it was released into the gloomy sky.

Behind it trailed a couple students, one measuring the distance it

traveled before it began its descent back to the muddy field.

“I swear, one year, when the wind was blowing the other direction, we

had one go all the way to UCI,” Oblouk said. “It just took off.”

Although none of the balloons sent up Wednesday morning experienced

such success, students chased them eagerly and tracked which went the

farthest.

Students would later take the several factors they were recording and

use trigonometry to calculate the height the balloons reached and the

angle of ascent, Oblouk said.

Students also will be asked to write a report of their findings. So,

in essence, the building and the launching were the fun part, while most

of the work is yet to come.