Your schoolyard has been equipped with an Ambient Weather Ultrasonic Smart Weather Station. This mini-unit introduces you and your students to the sensors included in the station and how the data is presented. Weather stations installed in locations around the city, and even the Commonwealth and the country, are also sending data to Ambient’s data dashboard so comparisons of data are easy to explore and analyze.

The Ambient Weather Network (AWN)

Ambient Weather, the company providing weather stations to our schools creates a station dashboard for every weather station installed and reporting to the network.

The Ambient Weather Network (AWN) is a free app and a web platform. You can access the the network on your computer by visiting  https://www.ambientweather.net.

In the setup of your Ambient Weather Station, an account will have been set up to connect your sensors to the Ambient Weather Network

Note: You do not need an Ambient Weather station to access the data from nearby weather stations. You can create a free account and then search for weather stations to create your own dashboard.

Ambient Weather has provided a Get to Know Your Dashboard Guide  for more detailed information.

The Ambient Weather Ultrasonic Smart Weather Station installed in your schoolyard will provide your students with local real-time data may also be used when exploring graphs, trends, and percentages.

The sensors will collect data on the ambient conditions in the schoolyard. The data is available in real-time. The slide decks available help the students understand how the sensors work, what they report and what the data means. The learning experiences also explore the ways the data is used, and why it is important. Each sensor includes an exploration of the weather element as a sensory experience .

As students what they know about weather. This is an appropriate time to make the distinction between Climate and Weather.  If you need some background information on this, use this video from NASA:  What’s the difference between weather and climate?  NASA also provides a poster that steps through the animation used in the video. POSTER DOWNLOAD

Ask students what questions they have about weather. Be sure to collect these on a document that can be referred back to as data is collected and analyzed.

Who uses weather data? Students will suggest obvious people who use weather data: meteorologists, farmers, pilots…but, as we work through each of the sensors students will be asked to think about expanded ways data is important.

What weather elements can be collected using the station? Compile a list of weather elements that students think will be collected. Ask where the sensors need to be placed to collect the data. For example, wind data needs to be in an open area rather than between buildings.

Brainstorm with students how they might want to monitor the data. Give the students an opportunity to take some ownership of the monitoring.

The Data Makes Sense deck – linked in the resource section provides an overview and in-class guided activities focused on each of the sensors. One deck contains all of the sensor materials. Separate decks for each of the sensors are also available.

The sensors covered are:

• Ultrasonic Anemometer – wind speed and direction
• Thermo-Bygrometer – air pressure, temperature, and humidity
• Rain Gauge – rainfall amounts
• Air Quality – airborne particulate matter
• Soil Sensor – moisture in the soil

Each sensor section also includes an engineering challenge for students to create their own functioning model of the sensor.

After completing overview, the dashboard output may be used by you and your students as authentic real-time data.

As part of each sensor overview, careers that use weather data are discussed. Students may research how weather data is used in a career of interest and/or interview individuals working in those fields.