Arctic Wednesdays 2023: Week 4 Pre-Trip Blog

 

Jessica Rominger-6th Grade Science Teacher

Laconia Middle School 

Laconia, NH

 

Tomorrow is my big exciting field trip to the Summit of Mount Washington and I could not be more thrilled! I revealed my reason for my absence tomorrow to students today by telling them that there was a special opportunity for science teachers attend, and asked if I should apply.  They unanimously shouted ‘YES’ - I wish I took a short video of the reaction I got when I told them I was already chosen to attend! As mentioned by a previous blogger, maybe they are excited to see the summit of Mount Washington, or maybe they are excited for a break from their ‘teach for a day! 

 

What is really fantastic about this opportunity is that it lines up directly with the start of our next unit, ‘Weather and Water’.  As teachers, we often look for a ‘hook’ to engage students in wanting to understand scientific phenomena and also see the practical advantages to their understanding of science.  Having Mount Washington as a resource of weather data from the last almost 100 years will be valuable to my students as we study weather data collection, using models to make predictions and understanding the impacts of climate change.  As a personal goal, I seek to find ways to connect students to outdoor learning and recreation and consequently, environmental stewardship.  Mount Washington is a phenomenal resource for my students and myself as their educator in our (almost!) backyard.

 

To get my students excited about Mount Washington Observatory, we started by talking about meteorology, weather and water science and their prior knowledge of the topic.  I introduced Mount Washington as a learning tool with some of the fun videos to start:  ‘Breakfast of Champions’ was a big hit, recent news stories about the recent extreme weather featuring Nimbus the Cat, ‘Extreme Mount Washington’ with the time-lapse of rhyme ice. As they grew in excitement they wanted to watch the virtual classroom episodes with Francis and Alex. We checked today’s weather and were shocked to see that the wind chill would reach as low as 20 below and up to 80mph.  That thrill was only surpassed by the forecast of tomorrow’s wind of up to 90 mph! “You better hold on to that railing and wear bright colors!!”

 

After checking out the higher summits forecast, we talked about how to prepare for a winter adventure in the whites.  Students gave me suggestions for what to wear (no crocs, Mrs R!!) and shared what they know about frostbite and hypothermia.  Lastly they asked me to upgrade my phone so they could get great videos to send to the class.  I’ll think about that one.  I was asked multiple times to get a selfie with Nimbus the Cat.  

 

Many of the student questions that were crafted today about weather tools and extreme weather.  Students are mostly curious about the wind speeds and extreme low temperatures, but are also excited about the visibility and possibility of seeing far away landmarks such as the Atlantic or Boston.  Several students asked if this opportunity could lead to a field trip to the Mountain this spring.  

 

After this experience, students will be learning about density and convection, wind, air masses and fronts, and weather predictions.  Students will explore the MWOBS virtual classroom activities while they are preparing for the zoom meeting from the summit.