Every year all of the IB science classes are required to participate in a Group Four project. They do this to combine all science classes into one big group. Each group has around one student from each of the IB science classes, including IB/AP Biology, IB Organic Chemistry, and IB/AP Physics. Each year, a certain topic is assigned and then the students are asked to figure out where to go from there. This year they are going to be sending a weather balloon up into the atmosphere, but what they measure or try to achieve is up to them. For example, one group is planning on sending a solar panel up with the weather balloon.
“Our Group Four proposal is to send a solar panel into the stratosphere,” sophomore Varun Shanker said. “We want to measure the rate of energy output of a photovoltaic cell.”
Every student will be doing something different based on their own interests. Whoever has the most creative or interesting project will actually put it to the test and see if it works. The story will continue to unfold, as the next meeting is on Dec. 3, 2014.
