Imagine a high-altitude balloon soaring more than 100,000 feet while collecting scientific data and taking video and photos along the way. For some SMCC students, learning about the atmosphere through the use of a weather balloon isn’t a textbook exercise — it’s a hands-on experience.

SMCC Photo Instructor John Stetson and several SMCC students helped launch a helium filled balloon from the base of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington last week and watched as it flew out of sight to the edge of space. They then tracked the balloon with GPS and retrieved it from a tree in the Maine town of Limington, where it landed after popping and floating to earth by parachute.

The event was part photography, part science and part backcountry adventure. For students such as Cynthia Tibbetts of Brunswick, who studies Human Resources, it was also an exhilarating learning experience.

“It’s given us chance to learn new things,” she says. “It’s thrilling, it’s an adventure.”

At SMCC, learning doesn’t stop at the classroom door. Whether it’s volunteering, taking part in student club activities or launching balloons in the name of science, we offer many opportunities outside of the classroom that engage students and advance their education.

The balloon launch was organized by an organization called Earth to Sky Calculus that oversees balloon missions around the country to explore the earth’s atmosphere. The balloons, which are about 8 feet in diameter, carry payloads of cameras and GPS trackers, as well as radiation sensors to monitor the effects of cosmic radiation on the Earth’s atmosphere.

Last year, Stetson and several SMCC students helped with a balloon launch from the White Mountains. Last week, Earth to Sky launched one balloon from Mount Washington and another one the following day from the Maine town of Poland. Stetson was on hand for both events, joined by different groups of SMCC students.

Stetson organizes outings like this because they make learning fun while contributing to student success. That enthusiasm is contagious, Tibbetts says. Whether she’s taking photos in Stetson’s photo class or working with a high-altitude balloon, she says Stetson has opened her eyes to the things she can do.

Tibbetts took part in last year’s balloon launch, and this time she brought along her husband, three sons, a niece and a nephew.

“He’s an amazing teacher,” she says. “It’s awesome to have teachers who are so enthusiastic about teaching.”

Stetson now plans to take some SMCC students to Wyoming to participate in a nationwide photography experiment in late August, when the moon will pass in front of the sun and produce a total eclipse visible across a swath of the U.S.

For the event, Earth to Sky intends to launch a dozen weather balloons — including one from Wyoming — along the path of the eclipse, photographing it from up high and collecting scientific data.

Stetson is willing to travel so far because it’s such a rare opportunity. The last total eclipse in the United States was 26 years ago, and the next one won’t happen until 2024.