- Craig Shortland, Year 11 Geography - Atmospheric Studies

Context 

Craig uses the school's automated weather station (a Davis 'Vantage Pro') to generate climate data for the Year 11 'Atmospheric Studies' course. The weather station continually collects data on temperature, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, rainfall and relative humidity which is downloaded and stored on a PC. Craig uses this data in several ways.

Overview 

In developing students' understanding of weather Craig compares the information gathered on the weather station to synoptic charts published in the newspaper. This enables students to see how the passing of low and high pressure systems create the weather. Students develop the capacity to predict weather based on their interpretation of the charts. Also students compare the data collected on their weather station to the official published data from the Bureau of Meteorology. Even though the official site is only approximately 5 km away, students find there are variations in weather which they then interpret in terms of topographical differences and the natural variability of weather.

Now that the school has collected two and a half years worth of data Craig gets the students to plot climate graphs using average temperatures and minimum and maximum rainfall. Craig exports the data from the station into Excel which the students use to construct their graphs. Craig says it is not a difficult exercise but making climate graphs is a skill they want the students to acquire. Again Craig gets the students to compare it with the climate graphs for Perth and interpret any differences. Their understanding of their own climate then guides students' analysis of climate graphs from other parts of the world.

Morley SHS also use their weather station data in other courses, including 'World Biomes' where the impact of climate on vegetation is studied, and 'Tourism Studies' where students use data from the weather station to identify the best time of year to do certain activities around Perth .