Helping kick off the creation of the Lawrence High School Weather Club are, from left, NECN meteorologist Danielle Niles ’06, Lawrence High School teacher Steve MacDonald ’78, Dean of the School of Marine Sciences Robert Gamache and Director of the Office of School Partnerships in the Graduate School of Education Judith Boccia.
Predicting the weather involves much more than just sticking your head out of the window and checking the sky for clouds. It requires sophisticated math and science skills – but it’s also fun.
“Atmospheric Science students really love studying the weather,” says Robert Gamache, dean of Marine Sciences and a professor of Environmental Earth & Atmospheric Sciences. “The enthusiasm that they show when they talk about the weather is contagious.”
He hopes their enthusiasm spreads to Lawrence High School students, with whom the University has partnered to create a weather club.
Using WeatherBug equipment – which provides real-time and archived weather data – Gamache’s students will provide demonstrations and projects for the high school students. He will also oversee a dual-enrollment course in weather and climate at Lawrence in Spring 2010.
The ultimate goal of both initiatives, he says, is to pique and sustain students’ interest in the STEM areas: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“The objective is about more than teaching them about meteorology,” Gamache says. “It is hoped that learning weather and using mathematics as a tool for solving weather-related problems will increase their interest in math and science. We lose too many students from the STEM areas in middle and high school. We want to present science to them as something vibrant and dynamic.”
But the University students will also benefit.
“Preparing and presenting classes will lead to their understanding of meteorology at a deeper level,” Gamache says.
Helping to launch the Weather Club recently was UMass Lowell Atmospheric Science graduate Danielle Niles ’06, an on-air meteorologist at New England Cable News (NECN), who joined Gamache and teacher Steve MacDonald ’78 in speaking at a kick-off event at the high school.
Niles described the exciting and challenging work of meteorology, the different industries that rely on accurate weather forecasting, the career path she took that brought her to NECN and a summer spent storm-chasing.
After walking the 20 student attendees through the steps she takes to prepare her daily forecast, Niles took questions from them about what college courses are required to be a successful meteorologist and how the television weather maps work.
She invited the new weather club to participate in NECN’s weather program by sending reports directly to the station.
“Believe it or not, we don’t have any windows in our studio,” she said, and “really need to hear from our viewers about what the weather is in their area.”
The meteorology partnership between the University and Lawrence High School is just the latest in a string of dual-enrollment projects fostered by the Graduate School of Education’s Office of School Partnerships.
“They are designed to provide high school students the opportunity to experience college courses in exciting subjects while earning both high school and college credit,” explains Judith Boccia, director of Office of School Partnerships in the Graduate School of Education.
Previously, the University has offered Introduction to Statistics, College Writing and Bodies and Bones for dual-enrollment to Lawrence High School students.
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