THOMPSONVILLE (WSIL) -- School is back in session after the holiday break which means our News 3 meteorologists are back with the Weather Academy.
The WSIL weather team taught kindergarten through fourth grade students in Thompsonville, and many of the students have already started learning about weather in the classroom.
Fourth grade teacher Alexa Beavers says weather is typically incorporated within their reading lessons.
"So we had an informational story about hurricanes, and it was more just a broad lesson on hurricanes, how they're formed, the damage that they can cause, how they dwindle, and then the informational text afterwards was all about Hurricane Katrina" Beavers explains.
Beavers says they followed up their reading lesson with videos on Hurricane Katrina but bringing in the Weather Academy brought the students even closer to weather science.
"It's neat for the kids to get out and see experiments like that. They love when they can get their hands on and be able to see you guys doing experiments with them, and it's a lot more fun to them than just reading it out of a text book," explains special education teacher Michelle Potter.
For the teachers at Thompsonville, it's important to bring interactive science into the classroom.
"We were learning about the eye, and we were learning about the cornea, and the retina, and how people with glasses use lenses to see better. So we actually made an eye model, it was a little 3-D model of the eye," says Beavers.
For Beavers, when it comes to learning, there's no substitute for just doing.
"It gives the learners that are more visual, and more hands on, the opportunity to absorb that information better. We can read about cornea lenses in a book, we can watch videos on it, but as soon as they get the opportunity to hold an eye model in their hand, and put that cornea lens in and see how our eyes work in their hands, they absorb the information so much better and then they're excited about it."
Next week, the Weather Academy travels to Galatia Grade School.
