Students at Alexander Robinson Elementary get ‘cirrus’ about the weather

Alexander Robinson Elementary students are forecasting a blizzard of fun in the weather club.

“It’s like, you’re looking at weather, you’re learning about it,” said Grade 4 student Willow, who is a member of the club.

Every Monday and Friday morning, students in the weather club deliver the forecast to the whole school over the announcements.

“We did it today, this morning,” said Grade 4 student Mayla.

“We do it all the time,” added Willow.

Sharing the forecast on the school announcements is one of their favourite things about being in the club.

“You talk into a phone,” Mayla explained.

“At first, it feels, like, really scary,” said Willow. “But once you warm up, it’s kind of better. You’re kind of not scared anymore because you’ve already done it.”

The weather club is made up of about 10 students that meet every Friday at lunch time. Grade 4/5 teacher John Schwarz started the club seven years ago.

“I’ve always been passionate about the weather ever since I was about the age of the students I’m teaching right now,” Schwarz said. “I could talk to 10 different people throughout any given day and always be happy to talk them about the weather.”

The goal of the club is to learn about the weather in greater detail, Schwarz explained, but also have fun doing it.

Students learn about the different types of clouds outside, how to read weather models to predict trends, and put on schoolwide competitions where classes make educated guesses on how much snow or rain the area is going to get.

“We go to […] radar sites from Environment Canada and from the University of Washington in Seattle and we look at storms,” Schwarz said. “We also have a weather station located at the top of our roof and students get real-time information about what is happening at our school.”

Students say they enjoy tracking storms and reading the radar site maps because it helps them predict when there might be snow.

“My favourite part is we get to know when there’s going to be snow and when there [are] going to be hurricanes,” said Grade 4 student Caylen.

Stella, who is also in Grade 4, agreed.

“I like to know when it’s going to snow and when it’s going to be sunny and then I can prepare for the days,” she explained.

The weather club goes beyond just delivering the forecast to the school, Schwarz added.

“I always like to relate the weather club to things that are happening in our world,” he said, whether that’s learning about significant weather events like a hurricane or why we haven’t had a cold winter.

“It’s also important that we go outside and we scan the skies,” Schwarz said.

Students look at the clouds and identify their classification and characteristics, such as cirrus clouds that are white, wispy and feather-like.

“We also look at wind direction so we can see where the clouds are coming from and going to,” Schwarz said. “And we also have many weather instruments that will tell us about the pressure readings.”

At the end of the year, Schwarz hopes students take away one key lesson.

“Weather, although it’s fascinating to watch, it’s very complicated,” he explained. The weather forecast is “very reliable” in the first two days, but “not very reliable” beyond five days.