SMLS5 Blog

You came to the write place!

For our second blog writing project we wrote news articles about our weather hams project. We spent 6 weeks in the Fall meeting twice weekly with amateur radio operators around the world, collecting weather data, culminating with a session just devoted to getting acquainted with our volunteer weather watchers. Ham radio operators love to talk, and it turns out they love to work with children, too! Read all about this project from the students' point of view in our weather hams news articles.

By: Adrian

      It all started when Mr. Schwan told us we were going to listen to people tell us about the weather in different cities, states, regions, countries, and even continents! Mr. Schwan's class was the only class doing this project. We were learning about weather at the time, so Mr. Schwan wanted us to learn about how weather could be different all over the world. Mr. Schwan asked people who had a ham radio if they wanted to do this project. Plenty of people did, and we wound up having people from places like Cleveland and Israel reporting their weather. We used Mr. Schwan's Ham Radio and listened to overhead speakers. We recorded weather and learned about how weather could be different on different continents. Then we put it on Excel to tell the difference between the weather on different days of the week and on different weeks. On our last day doing this project, instead of taking weather records, we asked the people we got questions about themselves. We did this at St. Michael Lutheran School in Mr. Schwan's classroom. People also did it in different parts of Ft. Myers, in different cities, states, countries, and continents. We did this on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:15 to 9:45 for 6 weeks.       

I think we did this to learn about other people and different weather on different places of the Earth (I also think we did this because Mr. Schwan enjoys being a ham operator and likes saying, "CQCQCQ. This is the weather ham's net." ETC.) I thought this was a fun project to do. (And I think you would, too!)

by: Connor

By Holly

Do you want to hear about how we did a Weather Ham Net thingy? O.K., then you should read this. My person's name was Bill. Bill only showed up one time out of the 6 weeks we did it, so at the end of those 6 weeks, I got to talk to Noah's person. His name was Hugh. Hugh lived in a different place while I asked him a question at school with Mr. Schwan's walkie-talkie. Thanks to the help of it and all the other people that had one, all this was possible. I think we did all this because it was fun. We learned a lot, and we were learning about this in science. Well, you've read it all! I hope you had fun learning about the weather ham net thing!!!

By Hallianne

In 5th grade you can do something extraordinary. You will be able to talk to people about weather! It is a lot of fun. My person is Doug from Lenoir, North Carolina and his call sign is W4TMU. The fifth graders talk to their guy and record weather on sheets! It was a lot of fun.  You should do it, too. THE END.

By: Lindsay

I am Lindsay and I am in Mr. Schwan's fifth grade class. On September 2, 2008 Mr. Schwan decided to do a project with his fifth grade science class.

He asked a few ham radio operators to join us for science class and report their current weather where they were. He thought it would be really amazing to hear the weather from people all over the world!

I said in my head at first, "This is a really cool idea . I can't believe Mr. Schwan thought of it for science class." Just between you and me I think the normal science is kind of boring. So this was a great exception!

By Connor,

 It all started in Mr. Schwan's 5th grade classroom. He said he was going to surprise us, so we were all excited. That's when he started telling us about recording weather and how they use their walky-talky. About five minutes later the walky-talky was ringing, Mr. Schwan picked it up and said "hello Doug". Next, he started telling us how to record. Soon enough we got the hang of it. We did this twice a week. This was a great learning experience for me.

 By Madison

            Mr. Schwan's class at Saint Michael Lutheran School learned about weather hams from early September to mid-October. A weather ham is an amateur radio operator who reports the weather where he or she lives. Weather hams do it because they want to compare weather with people around the world. Mr. Schwan's class wanted to be able to report the weather in their area by using Mr. Schwan's radio. First the class logged on to the computer to check which weather hams would be able to report the weather. Next, Mr. Schwan's class gathered the local weather information using the computer and their eyes. Third, they reported the weather to the other weather hams on the radio. Finally, the other weather hams reported their own weather, and Mr. Schwan's class wrote the weather information on a log.

THE END

by Noah                         

Mr. Schwan and some of his friends talked to kids at Saint Michael's Lutheran School about weather. All through September and October Mr. Schwan and co. worked with the kids. People reported weather info from all over the world and kids wrote it down. Then, Mr. Schwan's class (who had been communicating to people through the hams net) copied from paper to computer. After that they made it into charts. It wasn't fun at all!  

            Police officers are trying to get into the classroom, but the old people on the radio are giving them too much information about the weather. That is all I know right now stay tuned for more information.

By Steele