UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State meteorology students are better prepared to communicate the complexities of the weather to the public through a new collaboration with WPSU.
WPSU, which is a PBS member station, and the Penn State Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science provided students with the workforce skills they’ll need to communicate complex weather phenomena to the public and developed free educational resources for K-12 classrooms.
Marisa Ferger, Weather World contributor and assistant teaching professor with the Penn State Weather and Climate Communications Group in the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Sarah Hamilton, education program manager for WPSU, and Jen Classen, a graduate assistant on the education team at WPSU, collaborated to develop the educational materials as part of the class METEO 482: Weather Communication II.
The course is a multi-instructor workshop designed to mimic real-life applications of weather communications in industry, broadcasting, the courtroom and classroom. Educators can access these newly published materials online for free through PBS LearningMedia, a tool PBS stations can utilize to share content publicly that is aligned with K-12 education standards.
“The chance to explain meteorology to children through PBS LearningMedia was particularly intriguing to me. It also provided a way for our meteorology students to be involved, which seemed especially relevant since some of our graduates go into the education field,” Ferger said.
Meteorology students aligned their lessons with Weather World’s "WxYz" video series, which is produced by the meteorology department and airs on WPSU. Rebecca Newell, a third-year undergraduate student that participated in this course, said her goal was to introduce how a basic forecast is created and provide perspective as to why weather forecasts aren’t always perfect.
“One thing a meteorologist often hears is, ‘You have the only job where you’re allowed to be wrong all the time!’ I hope that this lesson plan will allow all participants to understand the uncertainties in forecasting and why they exist,” Newell said. “This project helped to showcase the variety of ways meteorology can be applied and the field is much broader than I initially thought. While I may still be unsure of my exact direction, I’m more confident now that there’s a place for my interests within this professional field.”
Another student, Filippo Formica, said simplifying difficult concepts will be something he'll need to do successfully to become a broadcast meteorologist, and this opportunity gave him confidence in effectively conveying scientific topics.
“I created an online scavenger hunt that covered several forecasting techniques, such as ensemble, deterministic and probabilistic forecasting methods,” Formica said. “In addition to showing students that weather is something they already can relate to, my goal was to also help them understand how forecasting functions in the real world.”
Hamilton said WPSU has 278 educational resources on PBS LearningMedia that have historically been created by WPSU staff, graduate assistants and collaborative partners.
“This cross-unit partnership has been extremely helpful in piloting an opportunity to extend learning and engagement with students while also supporting our efforts in developing content which can be accessed by students and educators across the country and the world,” she said.
Classen is pursuing a doctorate degree in learning, design and technology from the Penn State College of Education and assisted in co-instructing the students.
“Sarah, Marisa and I have been co-planning this unit since the fall. There was time built in for students to collaborate, create the educational materials and receive feedback,” Classen said. “It was an amazing experience for me to engage with a subject matter I don't know well and explore how meteorology students make sense of it and design fun, engaging activities for K-12 students to learn about it.”
Ferger said it was a valuable learning experience that she hopes will continue.
“It was also wonderful to see the meteorology students in our class working together to create content that could be used in classrooms across the country. Once they understood the assignment expectations, they really took initiative and ran with it.”
The K-12 materials can be accessed through the following links on the PBS LearningMedia website:
- Weather Forecasting Data and Accuracy | WxYz (Weather Whys?)
- Redefining the Seasons: Four Ways to Mark the Year | WxYz (Weather Whys?)
- The 1942 Smethport Storm: Unraveling its World Record | WxYz (Weather Whys?)
WPSU-TV, a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station, serves 24 counties in central Pennsylvania and reaches 515,000 households, and WPSU-FM is accessible to more than 450,000 listeners in 13 counties. The public media station also includes WPSU Digital Studios, which offers original web series that explore science, arts and culture.
WPSU is a unit of Penn State Outreach.