Clouds, Climate, and Weather MSP
Summer Camp Course Article

The goals of the RM-MSMSP are to use hands on activities in math and science to teach young students and to provide them with leadership opportunities and ways to practice teamwork. These students also experience what college life is like. They live in the residence halls with their mentors and eat their meals on the Colorado State University campus.

The 2008 RM-MSMSP included a weeklong course on clouds, climate and weather. Two teachers who had previously taken CMMAP's 35 hour Weather and Climate for Teachers course, Jim Barnaby and Mary Hunter-Laszlo, developed the 35 hour course in partnership with the Little Shop of Physics' Brian Jones and Sheila Ferguson and CMMAP's Christine Aguilar. The course involved 33 middle school students from Colorado. These students learned about the differences and relationships between climate and weather. They learned about air currents, how the weather works, climate change, the greenhouse effect, and pollution. They were encouraged to discuss methods to reduce pollution, slow down the greenhouse effect, and decrease the rate of climate change. These students learned about the science behind weather and climate in engaging and interactive ways.

On the first day, the students were assigned a final project. In groups of three to five, students created and performed a short skit on one of a list of topics. The topics included the greenhouse effect, past climates, climate change, weather vs. climate, energy conservation, winds, moisture/clouds, atmospheric heat energy transfer processes, the hydrologic cycle, the Coriolis effect, weather fronts, and seasons/pressure. The students were allotted different rehearsal/research times throughout the week. The project allowed the students to combine their creative talents with what they had learned throughout the week and to share their knowledge with their peers.

Many camp activities allowed the students to build on their interests in areas outside of science to learn about climate and weather. In one activity, students chose their favorite paintings from the Windows to the Universe website and discussed why they had chosen them as well as the different types of clouds represented in those paintings. They also wrote a poem about clouds using their knowledge of different cloud types.

The RM-MSMSP students took part in many hands on activities and games. Scientists from the Little Shop of Physics taught these lessons and provided the supplies. Experiments involved making a cloud in a bottle, making liquid nitrogen ice cream, launching a hot air balloon, viewing the stars with a telescope, and much more!

Field trips were also part of the camp. Students were given a campus tour, which included a tour of the Little Shop of Physics. They also went on a tour of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder.

At the end of the weeklong clouds, climate and weather course, the students left with a better understanding of the relationship between weather and climate, how weather works, and the science behind climate change. The students knew about several careers in science and took home some interesting science gadgets. Most importantly, they left with new friends and new ways to share their scientific knowledge with their friends at home.