The Fourth Day of Southwest Florida High School Weather Camp 2017

Matt July 20, 2017July 23, 2018

By Rachel E. (7/20/17)

We started camp today with an impromptu cloud watching time, to look at a potential developing wall cloud. Then, Mr. Spock (Mr. Mogil in disguise) visited us and gave us a survival test from NASA. The stated goal was to see if we could survive on Earth’s moon after our spacecraft crash-landed about 200 miles from the moon base; the hidden goal was to foster our critical-thinking skills. We had to rank-order a list of fifteen items by their perceived value of importance to our survival. We did this individually, in two teams, and as an overall camp group. This was ultimately a team-building exercise designed to test our cooperation skills, in compromising to choose those items which best contributed to our teams’ survival. One team had a group score that was comparable to the individual member scores; the other showed a dramatic team improvement.

When we were finished with the activity, we had a Skype call with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Tampa, and were given a tour of the facility. Brian LaMarre (the meteorologist-in-charge) showed us where the weather balloons are prepared for launch; we learned about radiosondes (the meteorological recording equipment launched with the balloons, and learned that each of the 122 NWS offices across the country typically launches two balloons per day). We were also shown the Doppler radar, and were able to see a thunderstorm behind it, which was cool.

Then we had a guest speaker, Susan Castle, who takes picture of the clouds in Old Naples. She even published a book about clouds, and all of the pictures were taken with her iPhone camera. The book is called Clouds of Old Naples. We learned all week about the science behind weather, and she gave us a nice change of pace. We just had to appreciate the beauty of looking up.

Then we had another Skype call, with Erik Salna from Wall of Wind (WoW) in Miami, which is a facility that can replicate the wind speeds of a category five hurricane (over 157 mph). WoW tests the construction quality of buildings, shingles, and other construction attributes to determine how well they withstand not only hurricanes, but also other weather conditions. They have assisted in the testing of structures for Disney World’s Avatar-themed land Pandora. See the list at end of this summary for key WoW web links.

Then, an iguana paid an unexpected visit. Although it remained on the outside of the window, it certainly captured everyone’s interest, at least for a few moments. Then we had a nice presentation by Matt, about poor color choices in weather displays. It gave me a new perspective on how people with red-green color blindness may find it difficult to interpret different kinds of weather maps. Through their eyes, the different colors may look too similar to distinguish individually.

We finished the day by discussing waves and their sinusoidal representation. We saw how waves could add and subtract (reinforce and interfere, respectively) using graphical examples. Then, Mr. Mogil showed us how to understand basic trigonometric functions and the “Circle of Doom,” using an isosceles right triangle (half of a square) and a 30-60-90 degree triangle (half of an equilateral triangle) to complete all the key angular values.

The day involved a lot of presentations and talking, not my favorite way to learn.

WOW Information Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK_WfgrbKGs&feature=youtu.be

WOW Video and Story:

http://news.fiu.edu/2016/12/fiu-featured-by-un-office-for-disaster-risk-reduction/107092

WOW Media Video Stories Archive (to pick any other video stories)

http://www.ihrc.fiu.edu/media/latest-media-coverage/

WOW Website:

https://fiu.designsafe-ci.org/

NOTE: As part of the camp experience, student summaries were critiqued by camp leaders and fellow campers. Then, edits and comments were shared in a group setting. This is part of the communication skill-building goals of the camp.

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