WeatherStem Station at OCS inspiring the next generation of meteorologists

Ouachita Christian School becomes the only K-12 school in Louisiana to have a WeatherStem...
Ouachita Christian School becomes the only K-12 school in Louisiana to have a WeatherStem station. (KNOE) -(KNOE)
Published: Sep. 6, 2019 at 3:25 PM CDT
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Ouachita Christian School is getting some new technology. They're inspiring the next generation of Meteorologists with their WeatherStem weather station.

OCS is the only K-12 school in Louisiana to have this kind of technology. The same technology was just installed at LSU.

It takes multiple measurements from the school's baseball field. There's also a camera on the football field which creates timelapse videos. The videos are posted on the station's Facebook and Twitter pages.

"The kids are blown away from us having our own station on campus, so they love looking at the data, they love seeing what the temperature is, and what it was," says Brandon McQuillin. He's a teacher and coach at OCS.

"They love the timelapse videos, and so it's this idea of being able to pull real-time weather data and seeing how that applies to our daily activities," explains McQuillin.

McQuillin says the station has the "ability to pull air temperature, wind gusts, and rainfall." He says that WeatherStem comes with lessons and activities that teachers can use in the classroom.

OCS is well rounded when it comes to science courses. McQuillin says they don't focus much on Meteorology, so this is a great way to teach the subject.

"The main one that has helped us is not only heat index (that's going to measure air temperature along with humidity)," explains McQuillin. "But the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature, which takes in that air temperature, humidity, the wind direction, how hard it's blowing, and solar radiation."

McQuillin says with the station they can determine how long kids can stay outside at recess and during practices safely.