Battle Ground students look skyward at paper lanterns

Learn more about the Center for Agriculture, Science and Environmental Education at

http://casee.battlegroundps.org

BRUSH PRAIRIE — Battle Ground students stood in a field and looked skyward Wednesday morning.

While one student held a paper Chinese lantern, another attached a paraffin wax block to the string underneath the lantern. Being careful to not catch the lantern on fire, one of the students ignited the wax with a lighter. As the lantern filled with hot air, it began to rise.

It joined other purple, pink, green and yellow lanterns already aloft.

To commemorate Chinese New Year, the students launched lanterns carrying their messages of good will and wishes: Health. Peace. Joy. Freedom. Prosperity. Happiness. Future.

Some messages were more specific.

“May my friends and family live long, healthy lives full of happiness and love,” one girl wrote. Then she added: “May my spelling get better and may I get a job in a zoology study.”

It was more than a celebration. It also was a physics lesson.

Students in Chris Collmer’s physics and green sustainable design class at the Center for Agriculture, Science and Environmental Education launched Chinese lanterns and then their new drone to capture images of the lanterns aloft. CASEE is a program for high school students in Battle Ground Public Schools.

Last week, the school received the drone, which was purchased with grant money.

In previous years, students in the food sciences class launched the lanterns during their study of China and its cuisine. This year, the physics and sustainable design class launched the lanterns as they studied buoyant force, Collmer said.

“We had the drone, so we thought it would be fun to fly it as well and take pictures,” Collmer said.

The drone will assist students with their field studies at the rural 80-acre CASEE campus, Collmer said. Students will use the drone to make clearer maps than Google provides. They’ll also be able to take photos and document changes in the campus’ pond and forest canopy.

“We’ll be able to look up into the trees,” Collmer said. “See things in a new perspective.”

After students launched their lanterns, they stood in the field and formed the number 8, considered to be lucky in Chinese culture. Flying about 400 feet above them, the drone’s camera photographed the moment.

Students continued looking up.

Then the calm of the moment was interrupted by a student shouting, “It’s going down!”

He pointed to an orange lantern gently drifting downward toward the tree canopy in the distance. Four students ran across a field to retrieve it. Another student caught the lantern in midair.

The drone was piloted by students Hunter Sayler, 16, and Asher Baker, 17. Both said they are considering working with drones in their careers.

“Something either science based or computer based,” said Baker, a senior.

A smartphone attached to the drone captured photos and videos. It sent the images to a second smartphone held by Collmer. Students gathered around their teacher to view the images of the floating lanterns about 400 feet in the air and the students who looked very small standing far below.

“The drone changes everything,” Baker said. “Your entire perspective on things.”