Teachers are known for the dedication, hard work, and love they put into their classrooms, lesson plans, and students. They get to school early, stay late, and always work to provide mentorship and guidance that will shape students' lives long after they've left the classroom. Teachers inspire our children to be confident, curious about the world, and passionate about their dreams.
Teacher Appreciation Week originally began as National Teachers Day, first celebrated on March 7th after former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt urged Congress in 1953 to recognize teachers. National Teachers Day was later moved to May, and the National Parent Teacher Association began calling the entire first week of May Teacher Appreciation Week.
Teacher Appreciation Week allows students, parents, administrators, and communities to show their thanks. We’re examining how educators have used Tempest, the Weather Science Kit, and other WeatherFlow-Tempest resources to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week.
Tempest Weather Safety & Science Kit
Compatible with Disney Weather Check, the Tempest Weather Safety & Science Kit is designed to inspire curiosity and learning about the weather around students in their environment. The kit includes a Tempest Weather System, handheld WEATHERmeter, and weather activity cards to help children understand how real-world weather works. Your children can use data from the Tempest and the WEATHERmeter to play weather bingo, see how buildings can affect wind speed, track changes in temperature in the shade vs. sun, and more!
The Weather Science Kit is great for teachers, homeschooling parents, and families who want to challenge their children or students' imagination and curiosity about the weather. New activities are created by WeatherFlow meteorologists and uploaded here.
Weather Safety & Science Kit >>>
Tempest Weather Education Resources
Alongside the Weather Science Kit are activity cards and many other weather education resources provided by WeatherFlow. Educational activities are designed to pair with the Tempest System, the WEATHERmeter, or even observational weather data like sight and feeling to get students from a variety of learning levels interested in the weather. The Tempest Blog has many great articles surrounding weather and weather safety 101, like "What Causes Drought?" and "What To Do When Lightning Strikes."
- Weather Science Kit Activities
- Weather Word of the Week Videos
- Case Study: European Heat Wave Captured by Tempest Stations
- Case Study: Global Pressure Wave Captured by Tempest Stations
- Tempest Blog
- Tempest News Feature: Retired educator Sheryl Sotelo uses a network of Tempests to teach climate concepts and coding
Case Study: Lexington City Schools
Lexington City Schools has had a weather station viewable by the students since 1993. Throughout the years, it was used by many teachers to supplement science and math curricula and was often featured on the local news as “The Weather at Caywood.” The equipment became old and eventually stopped working, but when Technology Coordinator Michael Crewse started working for the district, he made it his mission to get a new weather network in place.
While looking for a new weather solution, Nicholas Bradford, Network Administrator (and a weather enthusiast), suggested they look at Tempest. The school knew they wanted an interactive weather display and the ability to access the data from the web. Because of the price, they could add multiple weather stations, providing data from other schools.
"We push the link to our student’s Classlink page for each respective weather station and will link our weather stations to our District websites this summer. Currently, our Science and Math Teachers use the data, and we are playing with the idea of utilizing the API from Tempest in our STEAM classes. We have even recently used the lightning data to substantiate lighting damage claims with our insurance company."
Celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week
It's not too late to celebrate a special teacher in your life this week! From grabbing a gift card to your teacher's favorite coffee shop (or maybe a bottle of wine if you're feeling really generous) to a handwritten thank-you from your child, there are plenty of ways to show your child's teacher some extra love this week!
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