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Pupils become meteorologists for a day

By ANITA LINDLEY PETTOLA
Daytona Beach News-Journal
CORRESPONDENT

Provided by Tom Kiley Pictured in front of a satellite photo of Hurricane Rita, Matthew Lehr, a second-grader at Port Orange Elementary School, Emma Albert, a second-grader at Pine Trail Elementary School, Amanda Stevens and Kellie Smith, both second-graders at Spruce Creek Elementary School, learned about meteorology during Science Day at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

From hurricanes to planes, 33 local pupils landed aircraft, learned about tornadoes and conducted weather experiments during Science Day at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University April 7.

“We learned about cool ideas so that we can explain tornadoes and hurricanes to others,” said Josie Toung, 10, a fifth-grader at Horizon Elementary.

Sponsored by the Chi Epsilon Pi Meteorological Honor Society, Science Day was the brainchild of Treasurer Leah Henderson

“When I was in high school in Kentucky, I took part in a Science Day with a theme surrounding the elk,” said Henderson, a senior majoring in meteorology at ERAU. “That’s what gave me the idea of our local honor society sponsoring a meteorologically-themed science day here at Embry-Riddle. This is the first time we have done this and we have 33 pupils with five or six local schools involved.”

The children were placed in groups and taken by Chi Epsilon Pi members to special stations for 20-minute sessions on a variety of subjects.

Auburn Smith, 9, a fourth-grader at Spruce Creek Elementary, recommended the tornado station, while Matthew Lehr, 7, a second-grader at Port Orange Elementary, was excited about the air traffic control simulation.

“At the air traffic control station, I was allowed to give a plane permission to land,” Matthew said proudly.

Pine Trail second-grader Emma Albert, 7, was excited about getting to sit in the pilot’s seat of a Cessna 172 on display near the parking lot.

At another station, Tom Kiley, a senior meteorology major and Chi Epsilon Pi member, took a digital photo of each child and superimposed the shot in front of a weather photo using Photoshop software.

Each pupil was given a copy of that photo to take home as a memento.

At the hurricane station, Fred Mosher, program chairman of the ERAU Meteorology Program, said that the most often asked question was “Will my name be used for a hurricane?”

After discussing hurricane basics, Mosher showed pupils the hurricane names that will be used through 2011. “There’s my mother’s name,” said one of the pupils when she spotted the name Erin.

“I like to learn about the weather,” said Kelly Wolfe, 10, a fourth-grader at Horizon Elementary School, after making a swirl with water and food coloring in a pan in order to try to see how the energy circulates around a central point.

All of the pupils could relate to the station that taught about television meteorologists, how they do their forecasting research, and the use of the green screen for their on-air presentations.

Local pupils have a good local resource at the ERAU campus for weather-related information.

“The meteorology program at Embry-Riddle encompasses about five percent of the national enrollment in that area,” Mosher said.

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