Students
take readings from a Stevenson Screen in the school grounds |
A group
of keen young weather forecasters in Norfolk are getting the
chance to liven up their classes with the help of the Internet.
Students
from Norwich High School for Girls are swopping their local
weather readings with schools as far afield as Australia, Hawaii
and Zimbabwe as part of an online project called MetLink International.
Every morning
over a two-week period the girls measure temperature, pressure,
rainfall and other weather-related information, then use computers
to send the data on to the web.
A hands-on
approach
The scheme
hopes to encourage young people to develop an interest in the
weather, and the
12 and 13-year-olds from Norwich say they are getting a lot
out of the hands-on experience.
MetLink
helps improve students' IT skills too |
Catherine
Hanley, 13, thinks it is great to get out of the classroom.
"It
helps us to know how to use weather instruments for geography,"
she said.
"If
a teacher is just talking about it in the classroom, you don't
get a lot of experience of actually doing it - and it improves
our IT skills as well."
Twelve-year-old
Rumya Marudhappan agrees:
"I
think it is very interesting because you go on the computer
and type stuff up which you have found from the Stevenson Screen,
like humidity and temperature.
"I
think it is good going out and about and doing it for yourself!"
Getting
feedback on the web
Around 80
primary and secondary schools from 27 countries are taking part
- giving students a chance to compare climates with their counterpart
around the world.
Teacher
Judy Barham |
Geography
teacher Judy Barham says the students from Norwich High School
for Girls are learning a great deal.
"It
shows how what we do in class relates to real life," she
said.
"The
link-up with other schools is also quite exciting and different,
and the girls have responded very well."
MetLink
International is sponsored by the Met Office and the Royal Meteorological
Society.
Experts
are online to look at the students' readings, give them feedback
and compare their figures with official data.
It is hoped
that using the Internet to see the results of fellow students
in different countries will make studying the weather more interesting
for everyone involved.
Rumya, along
with her classmates, hopes she gets the chance to do similar
work again:
"I
would like to do more projects like this - it is great finding
out things you have never done before!"
Useful links:
MetLink International website
The Met Office
Royal
Meteorological Society
Norwich
High School for Girls
BBC
Weatherwise
BBC
Norfolk Online weather
|
