High School Weather Class

[Mike Ridgeway]

I'm going to be teaching two Atmospheric Science classes at a new high school. It is an elective class with around 30 juniors and seniors in each class. It will also be a year long class (meets everyday for 45 minutes), not semester like most that are offered in high school or college. I've been working on the curriculum for this class and want it to be fun for the kids. We do have a textbook, Meteorology Today (Ahrens), that some of you are familiar with. I know that the book is geared toward being an introductory college level course, but these kids should be able to handle it, as I set a fairly high prerequisite just to get in the class.

I really want to use technology with this course, and not spend a lot of time in the textbook. We will have a Davis Vantage Pro2 Weather Station up and running soon, a classroom projector to use with high speed internet, and of course DVD and VCR. Speaking of the internet, many of you have websites with amazing stuff on them, which I will access from time to time. And Stormtrack will be a huge resource used often. As we work our way through the course, I'd like to focus on weather basics the first semester. The second semester we'll dive into a more advanced nature, especially with severe weather taking place. I'd really like to get these kids to learn the science of storm chasing. For example, I have saved quite a few wx maps, radar and satellite images, etc., from the May 3, 1999 outbreak. The idea would be to discuss this day in detail, then follow up with some of the video footage from the storm. The same would apply to Hurricane Katrina and other historical weather events, and of course current events where many of you are involved throughout the year. Do any of you have data on your websites from chases you participated in? I just want kids to be excited about the weather, I'm not trying to turn them into stormchasers. Heck, I could just load up a school bus and take them on the ultimate field trip, but that might not be a good idea! I wonder what 3" hailstones sound like hitting a school bus?

Do any of you have some good ideas for this class? Other resources (websites, books, videos, lab activities)? We will use YouTube at times. There is some good footage posted by some of you. And we will be doing hands on weather map activities often, observing local weather outdoors, using weather equipment, writing in a weather journal and more. Many of us never had a chance to take a weather class in high school, so I do want this to be the kids' favorite class! Any feedback from you would be appreciated! Oh, and by the way, if you are ever out this way, please let me know. I would love to have you as a guest speaker! Thanks,

Mike Ridgeway
http://www.idahostormchaser.com/

 

[Robert Edmonds]

Two things...

Remember other planets have weather too. Mars has clouds and dust devils, Saturn has lightning, etc. Also, weather is nothing but allot of physics. If you want your students to understand why weather behaves in the manner it does you should apply a bit of physics in the class. Some more or less basic physics questions that would apply this would be... What is terminal velocity for a hail stone, and what does this have to do with updraft velocities? What is the adiabatic lapse rate for different planets? There's also allot of good physics and questions that can be asked with lightning.

Good luck!

 

[Jay McCoy]

Would have loved to had an elective like this back in highschool instead of things like art or jewelry making..uugh.

near the end of the 2nd semester you should be well into the severe season. Would always be fun to have a contest like we used to have here. have them do target area forecasts on severe days and keep score for closest picks. not only fun but get their competitive juices flowing. Maybe give the winner an honorary membership to ST since I am sure by them they will be wx weinies...I am sure the latest chase shows have helped feed their interest. Make sure to show them the reality of chasing. Hours of driving,hours of sitting in the sun waiting for initiation,bad food,and nasty hotels with most days not being tornado outbreaks. yet we all would do it every day of our lives if we could...lol

Also a field trip to the local NWS is required.

Biggest thing is keep it fun and not just a textbook experience. Hands on is always better. Just keep them off the weather channel.. They will only dumb down...lmao

 

[Mike Smith]

Teach them about radar and what it like to be a meteorologist by going to: www.srh.noaa.gov/ffc/HotSeat/index.shtml

I did this with an introductory meteorology class I taught this summer and it was a big hit.

 

[Jason Foster]

I take it this will be taught at a HS in Idaho, where your profile says your from. Two points knowing that:

First, absolutely need to talk about the importance of weather radios and the capabilities and safety of having one. To make it fun....tell them they'll likely know when the "snow day" off school is coming (if that happens much in ID) by hearing the special weather statements, blizzard watches and warnings.

Second, make sure to gear the class toward the weather in you own back yard. This way they can relate to the factors of the weather and see what is actually happening. If these are happening in the Fall semester, than it'll be great to start with the basics of physics behind temperature and wind, and then work their way up to winter weather.

Of course an overview of all things will have to be done, everything from the levels of the atmosphere to the ITCZ, etc. It's always hard to get this info laid out in one class too.

 

[J Gontesky]

You have the potential to create a great, fun class...so many students have an automatic interest in weather, and once you have students interested, the rest is cake.

When I assisted with a university-level intro atmospheric science class and also taught at the high school level, one tool that I enjoyed was a daily weather discussion that we had nearly every day. It was usually the first 5-15 minutes (depending on how interesting things are) of nearly every class session. I usually used a set of 5-7 slides, starting with large-scale (maybe a big satellite loop) and slowly zeroing in on the local region with some radar and surface charts.

I used essentially the same set of tools - satellite, surface charts, radar, SPC tools, etc... most days for that discussion. This created a nice before-during-after sequence whereby the first weather discussions will likely drift over their heads as they are not trained on reading surface charts, interpreting radar, etc... but as they slowly learn more, they'll get more involved in the discussions. The BEST way for students to learn how to use these tools is to use them at least a little bit over and over again...and they'll see changes day-to-day that will really help them gain a deeper understanding of how the tools work.

Then the rest of the hour can be devoted to the actual current topic of the class at the time. I think the Ahrens book will be a great level for you to use at a Junior/Senior level.

During the starting weather discussions, students usually had fairly rudimentary questions about the tools I was using - "What is the white blob on the satellite photo?", etc... but they quickly stepped up, such that later on in the year, students were eager to add to the discussion. By the end of each semester/year, I routinely had students spotting little oddities or interesting features of maps that I had missed or hadn't thought were all that relevant...and as a large group, we could put together a pretty solid, high-level discussion of the current weather and a forecast.

And just wait until a snowstorm is developoing, or an arctic outbreak, or severe weather. For snow here in Kansas, students were ALWAYS very eager to discuss an upcoming snowstorm...and of course, the likelyhood that such a storm would preempt school or sports practice, or whatever.

By the end of the year, a great performance assessment tool can be to have a student lead the forecast discussion. Have them come in a little early that day somehow and have them select the slides/tools they will want to use and they can rehearse a 5-10 minute discussion (or they can choose to do this at home if they have online access). If you assign each of your ~30 students to a day on the calendar (leave a few free days at the end of the semester to allow flexibility, finals, etc...), then you can have each student perform a day sometime during the final quarter of the year...and that can be a great alternative to a traditional test, while also forcing them to work on public speaking, oral presentation skills, etc... And many students LOVE playing the 'weather man' in front of the maps, so since you'll have the projector setup, it can really be wonderful. Again, let their interest lead the way - it'll make your job so easy!

I still run into students who will mention a current feature or forecast idea about a current setup that will reveal they retained a pretty high level of understanding of the content we covered a few years ago...it can be pretty satisfying.

 

[Greg Campbell]

Don't dismiss a chase trip out of hand! You're 'only' ~600 miles from the CO/WY/NE sweet spot. I'm sure anyone nerdy enough to sign up for a weather class would be ecstatic about going on a real chase.

It's not likely you'll get cored, but with a little preparation even 3" hail needn't be a danger. Goggles for all, and a few 'hail raid' drills should minimize any possible danger. A few days covering chase safety seems a good idea - it will sooth anxious parents and forestall possible legal BS in the unlikely event that someone does get hurt.

Many schools are part of a lodging exchange network; find a gym in Sterling and have the kids bring air mattresses. That leaves gas as the primary expense; 20 kids at $20 each will just about cover it.

 

[jpersonette]

Don't forget videos, students learn visually in this day and age. There are some good videos for weather you can get from Discovery channel and PBS (I am sure they all have websites). I taught Meteorology in H.S. for 35 years. Students need to "see" things as well as get lectured on them. Good Luck with the math part of it, though-unless they are all in advanced Math classes you may have trouble with the Math.

 

[czenzel]

Another good resource is UCAR. They provide historical data sets, some course materials, and many other valuable resources.

http://www.ucar.edu/

Another resource I found from UCAR was a web site that provided online education for free. It is part of the COMET program. All you need is to sign up for a free online account to access the materials.

http://www.meted.ucar.edu/index.htm

 

[Mike Ridgeway]

Thanks to all for your feedback! These are some great ideas and I'll keep all of these messages for future reference. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to teaching this class.

Back in 2000, I did take a student of mine on a chase to NE Colorado where we were fortunate enough to see the tornado that is used as my avatar. Left southern Idaho at 5:00 am and were chasing that beast the same day. I did have his parents sign some legal forms before we left, and the trip turned out extremely well. This kid was seriously interested in weather, and talked about it often. Hope I can spark the same kind of interest with my students this coming school year. Again, thanks for the ideas and tips and feel free to post more if you want.