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Last Update 03/21/07 |
Septmber 16, 2004 Science & Education Committee Report The Science & Education Committee of the North Florida Chapter of the AMS met as a group on Thursday, September 9th at 6:00pm for roughly one hour. In attendance were Clark Evans, committee chair; Chris Bennett, chapter president; and members Heather Mathews, Tiffany Miesel, Ashlee Hicks, Pat Taylor, and Rachel Austin. A wide array of topics was discussed. First and foremost was the first outreach event for the chapter year, a presentation at Buck Lake Elementary to a group of 4th graders. Due to Hurricane Ivan and scheduling conflicts, the presentation is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, September 21 from 2-2:45pm. Expressing interesting in going was Bill Cottrill; in addition, one to three committee members will accompany him on the trip. Once schedules have been determined, a brief introduction to the chapter’s elementary school program for those going on the trip will be provided. Other topics for the remainder of the year were then discussed, including contacting other schools about our outreach programs and events, the establishment of a K-12 local chapter/weather club, science fair participation in the winter, and other potential activities the committee could undertake. It was decided that Heather would work on a draft letter/flier to distribute to schools about our outreach programs and potential K-12 local chapter/weather club; Chris and Rachel would take the leg work in personally contacting and following up with these schools; Pat, Ashlee, and Tiffany would provide backup support in all functions and potentially present at Buck Lake; and Clark would get the ground work going for a K-12 local chapter. Of all possible functions for the year, besides the standard school programs and science fair participation, the K-12 local chapter garnered the most interest. In establishing this chapter, the following general outline will be followed. First, heads of the three other K-12 local AMS chapters will be contacted for comments. This has already been completed, but no comments have been received. Second, in contacting local schools about our outreach programs, the idea of a weather club will be floated on both the school and individual teacher level. A faculty sponsor will be identified per AMS requirements. Based off of assumed interest, specific schools will be contacted about organizing club meetings and getting word to students and parents about the weather club while local areas/people of interest (museums, weather studios, NWS, and so on) will be contacted to arrange for the first series of club meetings & functions. With time, the chapter will grow to encompass all of Leon County; after which time it can be expected that the K-12 chapter becomes a more or less autonomous entry from the North Florida Chapter. Ashlee’s experience and contacts with EXPLORES!, Pat’s enthusiasm, and Chris’ experience with the local schools and educational opportunities will prove useful in this endeavor. The idea floated at the August chapter meeting of creating our own promotional materials was met rather coolly, due to the time involvement required and uncertainties concerning publishing methods and costs. However, Chris did note the idea of producing videotaped segments for our educational presentations, both to supplement and augment these programs, as well as to provide to schools to show on a closed-circuit basis to their classes. This will likely be explored later in the year, while promotional material production will be revisited in the winter. Along a similar vein, Pat brought up the potential to work with other groups such as the Boy & Girl Scouts and the Boys & Girls Club, ideas which may be explored later in the fall or winter. After the meeting, a new shipment of materials from the National Hurricane Center by way of Matt Sitkowski in Hawaii arrived. Included in this bunch were a large number of flood brochures, Red Cross hurricane tracking maps, and other educational/informative materials. These will be used to supplement the materials left over from last year, mostly provided by the Tallahassee NWS, as well as a wide variety of Earth & Space Science materials from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center by way of Cerese Albers. In the short-term, the supply of available materials is sufficient. Disappointing news from our attempts to contact the science teachers across Leon County was shared at the committee meeting, as we have yet to hear directly from any teachers interested in our programs. Further, the one teacher who contacted us from a local middle school never responded to additional attempts at contact for a scheduled presentation the first week in September. We believe this to likely be a function of outgoing e-mails to the chapter’s server being blocked, as the e-mail was sent to science and math coordinators in Leon County and last year’s message was well-received in a very quick manner. Our one outreach function noted above was scheduled in a roundabout manner through the FSU Dept. of Meteorology, as they were unable to fulfill the request due to a large workload. We hope that through this function and word of mouth to other teachers at the elementary school as well as the recent signing-up for the chapter’s forthcoming newsletter by a teacher in the Cherokee Co. (Georgia) school district will help to kick-start our efforts in local area schools. While there were 7 members at the latest committee meeting and another couple potentially interested, we could always use additional input to the committee, particularly as science fair season approaches in the winter and because there are very limited times where the majority of committee members are free for presentations during the daytime hours, particularly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Any interested parties should contact Clark at northflams@gmail.com. A report on our outreach function, should it be completed in time, will be presented to the officers at the forthcoming meeting on Wednesday, September 22nd and to the chapter as a whole at the next chapter meeting on Thursday, September 23rd. Committee members are encouraged to make use of the committee e-mail list to share ideas and progress made within their tasks in the committee. The next committee meeting is tentatively planned for the first Thursday in October, October 7th. We welcome all interested parties to attend this meeting; more information will be available at the September 23 chapter meeting. For More Information: Clark Evans, northflams@gmail.com |
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