Learning up a storm: Science grant helps New Hope students with weather safety

May 17—New Hope Middle School sixth-grade science teacher Casey Mitchell said it's very important to teach young students about weather safety "because a lot of these kids may not know what to do when situations come."

"Like what's the difference between a watch and a warning," Mitchell said. "Or how weather affects our lives day-to-day."

That was one of the reasons Mitchell applied for a $2,150 Science Buddies grant through the Whitfield Education Foundation last year.

After receiving the grant this year, Mitchell and Jonathan Rose, a fourth-grade science teacher at New Hope Elementary School, began putting together a Science Buddies Weather Day at the middle school.

During the event, which was held in early May, students in seven sixth-grade classes from New Hope Middle and three fourth-grade classes from New Hope Elementary participated at five stations that focused on weather tools, safety, thunderstorm formations, clouds and tornadoes.

Eighty-five fourth-grade students joined with 160 sixth-graders to take part, with "about 25 to 30 sixth-grade students teaching the lessons and helping," said Mitchell.

"The rest were buddied with a fourth-grade partner and they went through the stations," she said.

One of the stations involved weather tools, including barometers, which help predict short-term weather changes; anemometers, which measure wind speeds and pressure; and thermometers.

"A lot of the tools that we got came from the grant," Mitchell said. "Really any kind of scientific tool. This was a great grant and we're so thankful that the (Whitfield Education Foundation) let us partner and do this, because these things cost a lot of money sometimes."

The students learn about weather as part of their science standards, said Rose.

"So, we thought 'Let's team up at the end of the year to do this,'" he said. "We've been working on it since around February."

The final station involved students building a small "house" out of paper materials supplied by Mystery Science, curriculum that is "supplied by the (school) district," Mitchell said.

"Students designed the houses and then we tested them with a (paper) wind maker to see if it stood up, which it didn't," she said. "Then, they had to fortify it a little bit with materials like stickers, paperclips and toothpicks."

Students then constructed a slightly larger house out of the same paper materials that they fortified to withstand stronger "winds" simulated by a leaf blower.

Nathalia Rojas, a sixth-grader who helped teach other students about cloud formations, said "Helping the kids" was the most interesting part of her experience.

"It's fun and it's really easy to teach them about clouds because they were really listening," Rojas said.

Cooper Postelle, a fourth-grade student, said his favorite part was making a poster detailing information and data about lightning.

"We could choose from a few different things, but I chose lightning because it was the most interesting," he said.

Postelle said he also learned about how to use the weather tools and "what you would need before a flash flood, a tornado or a natural disaster."

"We did stuff like that in Mr. Rose's class this year, so I knew about a lot of it already," he said. "But it's stuff that you would need to know."

Students Samuel Burnette and Tyce Coppock agreed building their houses to withstand high winds was a challenge.

"I had to add paperclips to the roof to keep it stable," Burnette said.

Coppock also used paperclips, but decided to go a slightly different route while attempting to secure his house. "I used toothpicks this time," he said. "Hopefully the wind won't knock it over."

Burnette said he enjoyed being able to use his imagination throughout the lessons.

"I just liked the creativity and being able to make your own ideas," he said.

Lela Meaux, Aileen Palma and Mia Lopez were three sixth-grade students who helped teach weather safety to others.

"We're teaching weather safety to fourth-graders so they know what to do if we have a weather emergency or how to be prepared for that," Meaux said.

"We're also informing them about the different types of weather and how to be safe, because we don't want anything to happen to them," said Palma.

That includes "knowing whether you should seek shelter or not," said Lopez.

Meaux said one of the most interesting points to teach was correlating severe weather watches and warnings with tacos.

"To be able to tell the difference, the 'taco watch' is when you're getting prepared and having all the ingredients for the taco on the table," Meaux said. "And then the taco warning is when the taco (or storm) is already made and it's at your table, so you need to get to your seat. If that was a tornado, you would need to go to shelter instead."

Mitchell, who conducted similar weather stations during her time teaching at Cedar Ridge Elementary School, said the grant allowed New Hope Middle to "get stuff that we needed while also having great learning experiences."

"And if a kid can teach it, that means they learned it," she said. "Who knows, maybe this will inspire some of them to become a meteorologist or something in that STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) field."

Meaux said that thought has crossed her mind. "I feel like being a storm chaser would be fun, but at the same time I wouldn't want to really get hurt," she said. "But I feel like this could help someone want to do that."