MT. VERNON (WSIL) � Shelley McDowell, a third and fourth grade teacher at McClellan Elementary in Mt. Vernon likes to use visual demonstrations when she teaches, and she teaches weather. This made her classroom the perfect place for the Weather Academy to visit.
"…We teach� land and sea breezes, and the water cycle and the clouds, and it was just a great visual experience for the kids," McDowell said.
The visual experience she references is the Weather Academy’s demonstrations, that are aimed to get students actively thinking about weather, and science in general.
Whatever the subject, McDowell, says it’s visual and interactive learning that gets students interested in learning, "Kids just learn more when they get to actually see, and not just read it in the textbook, so I think these are things that they will remember."
She applies this strategy when teaching science, and weather, in the classroom, "Everybody gets a job every day, and they take them very seriously, like the weather person of the day has to read on a thermometer, and humidity scale, they have to tell me… the types of clouds, and we have a chart so they can compare."
McDowell says experiences like these help with long-term learning, "I want them to have enough experiences within the curriculum, so that they will continue to grow in their learning as they grow older and continue to want to know more."
The Weather Academy hopes to use its demonstrations to continue to stir interest in science among students.
You can see all the Weather Academy visits by clicking .
