The AnaSonde™ family of digital radiosondes was developed as a low-cost, user-firendly means of gathering scientific measurements in the lower atmosphere up to altitudes of approximately 30,000 feet. AnaSondes feature a modular sensor suite that can be customized by the user, including simple interfaced for user-added sensors. Digital data is encoded as hexadecimal values for transmission to the ground as either a series of tones or Morse code. A plain-text Morse code version is also available for the AnaSonde-E and AnaSonde-M, in which case the data is processed by the sonde and transmitted in plain text. Presently, all AnaSondes operate in the 70-cm amateur radio band, and an amateur radio license is require to use them. Anasonde signals are received using inexpensive amateur radio receivers.

Initial flights of the AnaSonde led to UM-BOREALIS flight director, Jennifer Fowler, and Sean Kiffee, Bonner School 8th grade science teacher, to submit a workforce development grant to MSGC. The funding was used to construct and implement a curriculum based on the AnaSonde for 8th grade physical science students in Bonner, Montana. The activities also supported a graduate level capstone project that measured the effectiveness of hands-on science education in comparison to more standard means of instruction for the same topics. The development of the AnaSonde curriculum was unique in that currently only high schools and universities are utilizing this technology in their instruction, yet all of the concepts fit within the scope of junior high science. During the summer of 2006, curriculum was designed specifically for 8th grade students. This curriculum focused on meeting Standard #4: Physical Science, and Standard #6: Earth and Space Science in the Missoula County Public Schools Science Education Standards (http://www.mcps.k12.mt.us/Curriculum/Sciencesfiles05/sciencegrade8.htm). Themes that the AnaSonde curriculum contains include electric circuits, wiring and soldering, temperature/pressure relationships, density and buoyancy. As part of the curriculum, we partnered with a representative from the National WEather SErvice office in Missoula to act as an atmospheric science consultant and give a presentation to participating students. All developed curriculum and student data will be published to a website created by the instructor and made available to other Junior High Schools that are hoping to implement similar curriculum.