Sunny outlook for school weather station
Written by Alex Davis Monday, October 08, 2012 01:00 am
MDDLE TOWNSHIP – Jeremy Collins got a behind-the-scenes tour on weather broadcasting when he visited an ABC TV station in Philadelphia in June.
But the Middle Township High School senior didn’t really understand it.
“I didn't really grasp it because it didn't really affect me much,” Collins said. “I really wasn’t into it.”
The school year started, and he found out that the school district has a web-based weather service.
The software enables people to track wind speed, temperature, hurricanes, lightning and more. Weather data from across the country can also be pulled up on Middle’s weather software.
A weather station was installed this past summer atop the Performing Arts Center at Middle Township School District.
Collins, 17, of Cape May Court House calls the weather program “pretty cool.” It’s similar to what’s used at the ABC TV station, he said.
On Tuesday, Oct. 2, Collins said he had a scheduled cross county meet in Cumberland County.
“So I was able to just go on the website and look up WeatherBug, see the weather,” he said.
Another senior, Lauren Dillard, 17, of Avalon, and Collins are involved in sports.
“So you can use that to check the weather, see what we should bring to school to wear,” Dillard said.
They are both part of the high school’s surfing club.
Collins said he is able to find what the early conditions would be for surfing.
“Weather is part of our lives everyday because we have sports all year,” Dillard said.
She said the WeatherBug Achieve software hasn’t been used in the classroom yet, but that will come soon.
“We’re already excited because it’s different. We kind of get to out of the classroom, use the new software, rather than just everyday taking notes kind of thing,” she said.
One project for Advanced Placement Environmental Science class includes students looking at the temperature indoors and outdoors. That’s expected to start this month and continue into April.
“We can connect with other schools and just see the energy use,” Dillard sad.
Another project involves students figuring out the best building for a solar system by pulling weather data from WeatherBig, Collins said. Science teacher John King would assign students a certain city.
Students would figure out where to put the doors and windows on imaginary buildings, Collins said.
“We are going to use that so we can make the perfect house that will fit with the solar system to conserve energy,” he said.
For a different project, Dillard suggested students in the Advanced Placement Environmental Science class track global warming by comparing the differences in the weather.
King liked the idea.
“Excellent,” he said.
The district also has a lightning detection system along with the weather software, King said.
“It can tell you how far away lightning is,” science teacher Chuck Gehman said.
It’s useful for outdoor events, he said.
Lyn Langford, director of curriculum and instruction, agreed.
The program can be used to pinpoint inclement weather when the district has extracurricular activities, she said.
“That’s a safety feature,” Langford said.
The software is in line with the upcoming national science standards, she said.
Gehman said he is excited with the weather technology.
Langford indicated that the weather software allows students to hone many skills, such as graphing data.
“It’s a high-level thinking activity, that is very user-friendly,” she said.
The weather information can be accessed district-wide, Gehman said.
“Any classes that cover meteorology at all can just go crazy with this stuff. They can do their own weather predictions, they can monitor the weather data over certain amounts of time, whether it’s one day, one week, one month, one year,” he said.
WeatherBug Achieve cost $17,220, which was partly paid with a $3,000 Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics grant, according to Langford.
“It’s going to be up to the creativity of the teachers to really use it effectively,” Gehman said.
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