Glacier Ridge Students to Participate in Worldwide Weather Study

Submission by District 47

Glacier Ridge fifth graders will soon have an opportunity to learn firsthand about worldwide weather and meteorology thanks to Raspberry Pi.

Rather than the tasty dessert that comes to mind, Raspberry Pi is a miniature computer that, when combined with measurement instruments, becomes a computerized worldwide weather station run by and for students. Glacier Ridge was one of approximately 1,000 schools worldwide to be awarded the project, which was funded by Oracle and built by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a registered educational charity based in the UK. In creating the weather station, the foundation’s goal was to provide schools with an opportunity to gather and access weather data from around the globe.

Mrs. Combs, Extended Curriculum facilitator at Glacier Ridge Elementary, first heard about Raspberry Pi through a Google Plus community she belongs to. She said it piqued her interest because it expanded computer coding beyond gaming to a new area; in this case, to meteorology and geology. As part of the project, students will be able to monitor and test wind (speed, gusts and direction), rainfall, relative humidity, barometric pressure, air quality, ambient temperature, and soil temperature and share their results with other schools around the world.

The Raspberry Pi weather station looks like a circuit board but is basically a low cost, credit-card sized computer that plugs into a computer monitor or TV and uses a standard keyboard and mouse. While the weather station kit is recommended for students 11-16 years of age, Combs says EC students are taught computer programming in fourth grade, and by fifth grade, all students are exposed to computer programming through STEM class. The students’ job will be to code/program Raspberry Pi to do specific tasks, like obtain and interpret data from local weather stations, and then upload the data to the foundation’s computer in the UK to be shared with other participating schools.

While it has not yet been determined where the Raspberry Pi weather station will be housed at Glacier Ridge, Mrs. Combs said if it’s weather proofed, it will most likely be mounted permanently on the roof. She pointed out, however, that there are logistical considerations involved in the project, like how to bring electrical power to the source. She and the students will also need to create a web page to display their weather-related data.

The Raspberry Pi weather station is scheduled to arrive sometime in November. According to Mrs. Combs, students will engage in the weather monitoring project as part of a before-school club, initially open to all fifth graders. The club will start meeting sometime after students return from winter break.

For more about the weather station project and/or the Raspberry Pi Foundation, go to https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/school-weather-station-project/