Arctic Wednesdays Week 6: Pre and Post-Blogs

Karen Wesley

2nd Grade Teacher

Center School, Stow, MA

 Pre-Arctic Wednesday Blog

Years ago, pre-COVID (which feels like a lifetime ago!) I started an afterschool program titled “Cutting the Carbon Environmental Engineering”. Climate change has always been a very worrisome part of my science education as a professional, but this opportunity gave me a chance to inspire our younger generation to counter this global problem. As I would research and design lessons for my students, I would focus on the dysregulation of the carbon cycle and how this additional carbon in our atmosphere was detrimental to our planet. This would include a focus on the “carbon sink” of the ocean, which leads to increased global temperatures and coral bleaching. I would present challenges for the students, allowing them to use creativity to create engineering solutions. One example was during our project on carbon capture systems, as the students had to design a prototype on how to capture the excess carbon and get it back into our mantle. 

As I was designing and implementing new environmental challenges, one concept kept jumping out at me. Here I am spending all of my time focusing on climate, which is our thirty-year window of averages for our daily weather systems, and I felt a significant lack of expertise in the topic of weather. Of course I have grown up watching meteorologists forecast weather over the years, especially as a kid waiting for those precious snow days, when you do not factor in the shorter summer vacations due to the day off. As I grew older, I would be more in tune with drastic weather changes, as well as extreme weather events around the world. And of course this was a huge factor in me developing this passion, and emotional heartache, in response to studying climate change. However I realized that my basis for weather knowledge was similar to anyone else who watches weather reports and makes daily anecdotal observations while looking out the window. I decided I needed to change that dialogue and build up my expertise, as this would ultimately be a benefit to my students and our question for climate change solutions. A big shout out to 7News Boston Chief Meteorologist Jeremy Reiner, who is a resident of my community, an amazing father, and a friend. Throughout my process of applying for this program and getting accepted, he has been vicariously living off of my experiences on the mountain!

Once the pandemic arrived, I of course was unable to offer the “in person” after school program. After a few years I felt a big loss with my instruction, greatly missing this K-5 engineering club. Fast forward to the fall of 2022, as I am briefly scanning through various science professional development opportunities in the New England area. I am a member of MAST, which is the Massachusetts Association of Science Teachers, which is an amazing organization. One day I glanced at the name of a program, “Arctic Wednesdays”, which I then read the descriptor. This program involved sending teachers to the top of Mount Washington, allowing them to have a tour of this incredible weather station and to hold a live Zoom meeting with their classmates. This was one opportunity that I was not going to pass up! While completing the application, I figured my chances of getting chosen were slim to none, based on no evidence, but just with the fact of me being a second grade teacher and an elementary school club advisor. I could only visualize middle school and high school teachers going to the top of the mountain, talking in fancy “weather” terminology, which was beyond my knowledge as a professional. 

Then I started thinking of my “need” for this professional growth on weather, as this is the missing block of my climate change focus. I may have a strong background knowledge on climate change, however weather was a different story. I could probably name wind vane and thermometer as weather instruments, but that was the extent of my background knowledge. Within my application I wrote about my passion for science education and how this opportunity would allow me to go above and beyond what I already do with my students. If I was able to learn weather instrumentation and to actually be in a weather station (never mind it being on top of Mount Washington!), I would go beyond my comfort zone to push my understanding of everything and anything weather-related. Soon after the application process I became very busy in my regular life of being a mother and a teacher and everything else in between. I kind of pushed this opportunity out of my head, figuring it was worth the shot and that I should be proud of reaching out and expressing interest. Little did I know that a few months later I would receive a celebratory email with news of me being accepted into the program, heading up the mountain on the last Arctic Wednesday of the winter season on March 1, 2023. I must have run around my school for the next thirty minutes or so, just showing my friends the email and just permeating this joy as a teacher, but mainly as an adult learner.

Fast forward another few months, as then we have our first Zoom meeting on how to prepare for our adventure, as well as the expectations and guidelines for the program. This presentation was the final “push” I needed to get beyond my comfort zone for weather education, as just within the thirty minute span of the meeting, I learned all about how the topography of the mountain, as well as the Venturi Effect played these vital roles on the science behind the extreme weather conditions. The day after I started scavenging my house for items that I would need for my adventure, as well as making a list of “cold weather” clothing items that I would need to purchase in the next few months. 

Soon into February 2023, I gladly agreed to coming up a week later, due to a change in a fellow educator’s schedule. Now I’m planning on heading up March 8th. However that week we had a Northeaster, making travel not possible, especially with my “good weather” travels of three and a half hour trips from the Greater Boston area. So my official visit would be the following Wednesday, on March 15th. 

At this point I am so excited for the trek up the mountain, especially the tour of the weather station, that I spend a whole weekend furiously studying up on weather science. I create slideshow presentations for my students, explaining all about our atmosphere, wind, weather fronts, along with a central focus on weather instrumentation. I could finally rattle off the various weather instruments and their uses, but still it wasn’t from firsthand experiences, so much of the information was vague as a learner. By the end of the weekend I am mentally exhausted from all of the studying, however I feel a bit more knowledgeable of what I will be looking at on the mountain, and my excitement continues to grow. I remember being very nervous the morning of March 15th, driving up north and just watching Mount Washington become larger and larger in my window. Then it hit me at how grateful I was for this opportunity, and that I was going to treasure every moment from that day. And that, I did.  

A snapshot of the presentations that I created for my classroom. These provided invaluable background information for myself, as I was not very weather-savvy as an educator beforehand. 

An image of the snowcat that would bring us to the top of the mountain. I was very curious as to the size and scope of this machine. My anticipation continued to grow the morning of the trip, awaiting to go on this snowcat!

Post-Arctic Wednesday Blog

Early Wednesday morning, March 15th I arrived at my destination, the base of the Mount Washington Auto Road. It was quite surreal to enter the parking lot during the off season, as the last time I was at this location was mid-July during the summer rush of tourists. Upon exiting my car, I met two very kind men who were going to spend the next week on top of the mountain, volunteering to cook and clean for the staff. I expressed my gratitude for such a noble gesture, especially later on in the day when I befriended the kind lady who had just finished up a week of solo volunteering. And this was after her trip up the mountain was delayed a week ago due to the storm. I just love meeting nice people!

Then we met in the garage to meet up with the staff, as I was finally glad to put a face with the names of the people who I had been emailing with over the last few months. Such a warm welcome was received by all of the staff! Soon enough we loaded onto the Snowcat which would bring us up the Auto Road, and this machinery was absolutely amazing! I am by no far an expert in vehicle design, however this mode of transportation was fascinating to me. We were lucky in that our trip up the mountain was very easily done, as it had not snowed greatly since last week, thus the road was pretty easily accessible. The previous week, I was told, was quite the tough ride up, due to the severe weather and the constant back and forth with the plow to clear the road. Flexibility and safety are key, as if the conditions are not safe for the vehicle, they will head down and try reaching the summit the next day. Which I have so much respect for, and also so much respect for the scientists and workers on the mountain who have to extend their already lengthy work week.

We stopped mid-trip up the mountain to take a stretch break and enjoy the absolutely beautiful temperatures for this mid-March afternoon. It was around 37 degrees Fahrenheit, I believe, at this stop, and I was just soaking in the sun and the beautiful views of the Presidential Range. Once we reached the summit, I helped unload the supplies for the week, and then was brought into the weather station for a tour. An amazing intern named Amy showed me all around the weather station, and this by far will be one of the most incredible experiences of my life. This is also when I realized how much I would have loved a job in meteorology or climatology, but then reminded myself why I love teaching second grade with such a passion.

The easiest way to show my tour of the weather station with these slides, which I created after the trip:

I love history and everything that goes along with it. Just seeing these weather observation books, going on 89 years old, it was incredible. To know that the scientists have been logging observations and data for this many years, every single day from the mountain…it is hard to comprehend, but very easy to appreciate! 

My FAVORITE view was of the rime ice! I never have seen such an incredibly fascinating ice formation before today! 

Just a month prior, meteorologist Francis Tarasiewicz measured 101 degrees Fahrenheit wind chill, with wind gusts of 127 mph. I can’t even fathom his experience!

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I would love to have this view from my office each day! 

The week prior to my departure, I had read on a Facebook message that Nimbus had just celebrated his third birthday. Super sweet! My students created birthday cards and other sweet pictures for our furry friend. I think he liked them!

And a huge thank you to Meteorologist Alex, as she graciously co-lead the ZOOM call with my classroom, as well as an entire cafeteria of kindergarten and fourth grade students, as well as some other classrooms in the Nashoba Regional School District (Stow, Lancaster, and Bolton). Just seeing the kids smile and wave to me while on the screen was so precious, especially as I felt a world apart from them! I read a bunch of student-directed questions to Alex, which asked about wind speeds, temperature recordings, what life is like on top of the mountain, and of course, what is Nimbus’ favorite thing to do. I am still wondering if the kids were more interested in Nimbus than in the content, just kidding! 

Also, a HUGE shout out and thank you to all of the staff at the observatory. These people are some of the toughest, smartest, and most patient scientists I have ever met, especially in regard to their work conditions. Listening to the stories of their weekly shifts which involve constant shoveling, clearing rime ice, and the consistent and accurate weather observations is beyond what most people do in a given year. Most importantly, as a mom I am always thinking of the safety of younger people on the mountain, such as the hikers. I was so grateful to learn about the daily weather reports to the huts along the mountain trails, sharing hour by hour, minute by minute weather information, if needed. This is what saves lives. With this focus on science and safety, they are able to share information to keep people off the mountains during severe weather, especially as we know that Mount Washington has some of the most extreme weather conditions in the world. One image that will stay with me forever is watching the barometer and anemometer in the weather station. The barometer is able to show the low and high pressure systems, and this is a major indicator for rapidly declining weather conditions. The anemometer works with a pitot tube, which is used in aircraft to measure wind speed, and to see the circle red markings of the Hays’ Wind Chart was just visually beautiful, that is, if you are a science lover like me! Also remember that the Mount Washington Observatory has many offerings of other professional development opportunities for educators, while also having hundreds of thousands of weather data saved from the daily recordings. If you have an interest in weather and climate, I hope you have a chance to partake in this program! Thank you again to the staff, as this is an experience that will last me a lifetime!

Sincerely,

Karen Wesley

March 24, 2023