The map is the hero
The connection map
The map is the heart of the experience — schools, trajectories, and the people a flight might meet. Nothing here is a live balloon until FoundationOS says so.
How a mission works
Students operate a real scientific flight — then wait to see who it might meet.
Step 1
Learn the sky
Atmosphere, wind, and why altitude changes everything.
Step 2
Build the mission
Configure payload, tracker, and the message that travels with it.
Step 3
Predict the flight
Direction, distance, states, altitude, duration, landing area.
Step 4
Launch
A classroom sends something they made into the actual sky.
Step 5
Track
Watch position, altitude, and sensor data as the balloon climbs.
Step 6
Discover connections
Schools, towns, states, and sometimes another mission.
Step 7
Wait
The mystery is not the science. It is who might find it.
Step 8
Meet the finder
Someone far away can become part of the experiment.
Step 9
Return and reflect
The payload comes home. The story stays.
The story we are telling
- Curiosity What if?
- Build We made this.
- Anticipation Where will it go?
- Launch There it goes.
- Discovery Look where it is.
- Connection It passed another school.
- Mystery Who will find it?
- Human connection Someone found us.
- Return It came home.
- Reflection We really are connected.
Predict the flight
Before launch, the classroom places a predicted landing. After landing we compare what they believed with what the atmosphere actually did.
Found this?
Every payload carries a durable QR. Scanning it should feel like walking into the story — not filling out a government form.
Mission Control
A large-display mode for the classroom projector. Big map. Big telemetry. Very little chrome.
The Great Connection Launch
A future national day when multiple Wonderful Foundations schools launch under one sky. Counts come from data — never from a slide.
Classrooms, sky, and the space between
Student photographs are from real Wonderful FieldTrip days. Balloon and landscape photographs are illustrative until live missions publish their own media.
Safety, not theater
Staff complete an operational checklist before a mission can be marked Ready: weight, balloon configuration, tracker test, contacts, recovery instructions, battery, launch site, weather review. This website does not claim regulatory approval. It records that responsible adults finished their work.
Built for student privacy
Public pages name the school, classroom or team, and the mission — not individual students. Finder photos and messages stay hidden until staff approve them. Recovery coordinates are operational, not a public street address.
Questions
Are these real balloon flights?
Not yet on this site. Every mission in the current catalog is a labeled simulated demonstration so schools and partners can see the product. Live telemetry will come from FoundationOS. Simulated flights are never mixed into production statistics.
How do I fund We Are Connected?
Give at wonderfulfieldtrip.org/donate/?campaign=we-are-connected. Gifts are tax-deductible through Wonderful Foundations and attach to this FieldTrip campaign so we can fund payloads, trackers, recovery, and staff time.
Will students’ names appear on the map?
No. Public storytelling uses school, classroom or team, and mission identifiers. Finder reports can include a first name only after moderation.
What tracking hardware do you use?
The platform is tracker-agnostic. APRS, LoRa, satellite, cellular GPS, commercial balloon trackers, or a manual import can all normalize into the same telemetry schema in FoundationOS.
How do I bring this to my school?
Start at Bring FieldTrip To My School. Operational scheduling, waivers, and launch approval live in FoundationOS — not on this marketing site.
For donors
Why donate
We Are Connected lets students send something they built into the sky and wait to see who it might meet. Gifts fund payloads, trackers, recovery, and the staff time that keeps the science real and the storytelling student-safe.
A mission, not a worksheet
Students learn atmosphere, engineering, and geography by operating a flight they can follow.
Human connection at distance
The payload is a letter to a stranger. Your gift makes that letter possible.
Privacy-first public story
Public pages name schools and missions — not children. Moderation stays in FoundationOS.
Tax-deductible impact
Gifts through Wonderful Foundations support nonprofit education programming.
What you get
- Receipt and acknowledgment tied to campaign `we-are-connected`
- Campaign updates as classrooms launch live missions
- Optional quiet program recognition — never ads on the map
For sponsors
Why sponsor
Sponsorship should feel like enabling exploration, not buying the sky. One line of credit — We Are Connected is made possible by — and no advertisements on the map.
Mission, not merch
Associate with student science and unexpected human connection.
National story that grows
Every completed flight adds a line to a living map of Wonderful Foundations schools.
Quiet recognition
Program, mission, or event sponsor fields in FoundationOS — never littered pins.
Sponsorship options
Underwrite the We Are Connected season.
Send one classroom’s payload into the sky.
Enable a national same-day launch when the data exists.
What sponsors receive
- Experience-page recognition on the live We Are Connected hub
- Optional mission underwriting
- Approved storytelling after live launches begin
Help students send something into the sky.
Bring it to a school
Request We Are Connected for a Wonderful Foundations campus.
Request a FieldTrip
Fund a mission
Your gift can put a tracked payload in a classroom that has never launched one.
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