Sunny St. John's Day Sunday: Students inspire with weather balloons!

Sunny St. John's Day Sunday: Students inspire with weather balloons!

Today, July 1, 2025, the St. John's Festival in Witzenhausen transformed the city into a happy community. In bright sunshine and midsummer temperatures, numerous visitors, including students, teachers and various bands, came to celebrate the festival. The good mood was noticeable everywhere and the event attracted many people who wanted to enjoy the day together. Photographers like Julia Dilling-Neitzel, Ulrike Käbberich and Tobias Stück captured the best moments of St. John's Day so that the memories of this beautiful day remain alive forever.

A special highlight for the students of the Johannisberg School was their participation in an exciting technical project: a weather balloon, which was constructed as part of the Junior Engineering Academy (JIA), took off on Friday from the schoolyard of the Witzenhausen vocational school. Laszlo Böhmer (16 years old) and Julius Heinzl (15 years old) were the creative minds behind this exciting project. After around six months of hard work and planning under the guidance of Markus Meister, the balloon filled with 5400 liters of helium was finally sent up.

A look into the stratosphere

The weather balloon took off precisely at 1:15 p.m. at a speed of around eight meters per second and had set itself an ambitious goal: a height of around 36,000 meters. After an ascent that lasted around 70 minutes, the balloon burst in the air and reached a maximum diameter of an impressive twelve meters. The landing took place near Leipzig, where the coordinates were transmitted via short message. During its journey, the balloon collected valuable data about temperature, air pressure, light and humidity, which will now be evaluated.

The aim of the project is to raise awareness of climate change and global warming. The students compare the collected data with archival values ​​from the German Weather Service from the last 30 years in order to make changes visible. This exciting initiative is not only a wonderful example of practical learning, but also of young people's commitment to a better environment.

Innovative MINT projects for schools

The weather balloon project could also be an inspiration for other schools. The concept of “Stratoflights” offers teachers the opportunity to take their classes on a research trip into the stratosphere. Weather balloons are used to carry out experiments and measuring devices at altitudes of up to 40,000 meters. This method combines theory and practice in an extraordinary way that fascinates and motivates students.

These initiatives show how important it is to get children and young people interested in science. The combination of hands-on experiments and experienced STEM content enables students to achieve tangible results. Information about the programs and training for teachers is always available on the Stratoflights platform, where comprehensive implementation support is also offered.

Overall, the St. John's Festival in Witzenhausen shows that community and creative minds can achieve a lot. With events and projects like this we not only come together, but also learn to better understand the world around us and actively shape it.

For further details and the latest developments around the projects, you can visit HNA, which Johannisberg School as well as Visit Stratoflights.