Miami Middle School, in partnership with the Department of Defense STARBASE 2.0 Indiana program, will release a High Altitude Balloon at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19. The release is the culmination of work students have done in the 10-week after-school, hands-on, minds-on program. The program is designed to drive students’ excitement to pursue even more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. The High Altitude Balloon project encompasses all STEM areas, giving students opportunities to research, prepare experiments and launch their work with on-board cameras focused on their project. During the launch, students will be able to track the balloon from lift off to landing. Students will analyze the data downloaded on iPads or computers in the “mission control” lab after landing. The balloon has the ability to go as far as 100,000 feet into earth’s atmosphere, carrying payloads of up to 12 pounds, before bursting and returning to earth. An attached parachute will guide the payload of equipment back to earth, coming to rest approximately two hours away.