Remove ImagesNorthwood’s first Weather Watch
November 14, 2012
Meteorologist Cris Martinez shows students how winds work.
CBS Atlanta meteorologist Cris Martinez visited Northwood Elementary to teach students about winds and other earth sciences.
All of the school's fourth-graders assembled in the school library to listen to Martinez as he talked to them about the science. The students were primarily excited about being able to meet a man from the popular weather station. However, they readily absorbed the information he brought to them.
Martinez began the program by bringing the students the facts. This was the school's first lesson in meteorology; students hadn't yet focused on learning about weather patterns, nor had they had any exposure to earth sciences. Martinez explained how high and low pressures in the atmosphere caused windy and stormy weather.
After learning about why storms happened, students were given the opportunity for a hands-on experience. Using paper cylinders, the fourth-graders simulated the circumstances that lead to tornadoes. They were shown how the shift from high to low pressure creates such devastating winds.
Finally, Martinez played live footage of Hurricane Isaac. The fourth-graders were able to see how destructive a hurricane really was, and it gave the lessons from earlier that day a chance to be applied to real life.