High Altitude Balloon
Fly your iPhone to the edge of space. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtXquYhY7wo . This has become rather a rage.
This is just a suggestion for a possible starter project. We'd use a weather balloon to send a payload of our design to the edge of space - about 120k feet. This would require a good deal of development and planning, and a little bit of money. It's certainly something that could be done by spring as a send off for our graduating seniors.
Sparkfun has a pretty decent walkthrough that even prepares you for the distinct possibility of sending a grand worth of electronics aloft and never recovering it.
There are several facets to this project that could be broken down into smaller individual projects (this isn't comprehensive):
Balloon dynamics - capacity, predicted altitude, predicted flight path, controlled descent, etc.
Tracking and recovery - Usually done with a GPS and RF transmitter. There are some designs that use a smartphone.
Pretty pictures - Video of ascents, the balloon popping, etc are all really neat. Still images of the curvature of Earth are amazing. All require effort and planning.
Data Logging - What other data would you like to see?
- Measure the gravitational constant, G
- Measure the time dilation due to general relativity, as a function of altitude.
This would cost money and we'd have to figure that out, too. Minimum cost is about $150 for just the balloon and helium with no electronics or payload. The sparkfun balloon ran $1200. We could run it off of individual contributions or do a few pizza sales in the lobby. Thoughts?
Again, this is just a suggestion. If you have ideas for a group project, please post them! - Brett
Hey Brett, you can just fly your (obsolete every year) iphone and use Find My Phone to recover it. See video above. It has been done, no muss no fuss beyond the balloon. BTW, there are bacteria up there, possibly to blame for the snow in Wisconsin. Maybe someone could bring back some air samples and some biologists could take a look, figure out how to alter the climate around here, in a good way, if that is imaginable. 
- Duncan
http://www.nature.com/news/high-flying-bacteria-spark-interest-in-possible-climate-effects-1.12310
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/microbes/wolfe-text