OUTCOMES: WeatherBug Achieve was implemented in thirty-one schools representing eighteen states and the District of Columbia. Some of the classrooms interfaced the materials with agricultural messages to connect the message about the important impact of weather on agricultural production. Students in one of the thirty-one classrooms adopting the program had access to additional information about weather. PRODUCTS: WeatherBug Achieve is a commercially developed program that utilizes weather data for classroom use. Other teachers used the materials for weather information without linkage to agriculture. A teacher in the gifted program at Benjamin Middle School, connected the Illinois curriculum for agriculture in the classroom to WeatherBug and integrated science and language skills through agricultural connections. One teacher, Carol Bohnert, Chicago, Illinois, did report extensive use of the program. Educators expressed concern over the addition of yet one more program to their already time-pressed schedule. Others expressed concern over previous technical problems with a similar program. Some schools chose not to participate due to budgetary restrictions that would not make the renewal possible.
Due to timing issues, the subscriptions for the service did not coincide with the availablity of the materials thus leaving it to the discretion of the teacher to make the agricultural connection. Curriculum materials were planned that would interface the WeatherBug Achieve program to agriculture. Thirty-one schools representing eighteen states and the District of Columbia utilized the program.
ACHEIVE WEATHERBUG FREE
Teachers attending the conference and not the recepient of the one-year free subscription were eligible to register to win a free subscription. During the meeting, one WeatherBug Achieve Silver Package and Tracking system was awarded to New Mexico Agriculture in the Classroom Program through a drawing. The responsibility of the state would be to find a school equipped with MotionCam so they could utilize the program. The initial program would allow each state a one year complimentary subscription to this weather service. The District of Columbia and surrounding vicinity has great recognition of WeatherBug unlike other areas. The WeatherBug program is more recognized in some area of the country than others. AWS had approached the USDA National Program Leader about the potential for this program to partner with the Agriculture in the Classroom program to expand understanding of weather as it relates to agriculture. It includes time-lapse images of weather systems, cloud formations, sun and moon positions.
ACHEIVE WEATHERBUG SOFTWARE
This software is used in conjunction with WeatherBug MotionCam to bring data from weather stations to the classroom. Progress 07/01/06 to 06/30/08 Outputs AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc., Germantown, Maryland, introduced the WeatherBug Achieve software to a representative of each state Agriculture in the Classroom program during the 2006 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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