Written by Nicole Fassina and Maren Hale

Our education and research teams have been working together since early this summer on an exciting Hub sub-project to bring data science opportunities to schools through weather station installations. 

We hope to provide weather stations to various schools across San Diego County over the next several years, and co-design uses of weather data for community-engaged research, teaching, and learning. Stations will come equipped with instruments to measure meteorological parameters such as temperature, wind direction, wind speed, wind gust, rainfall, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and solar/UV radiation. The goal is for stations to be strategically placed in different microclimates within the region, to benefit students and teachers as well as researchers. 

This project offers an exceptional opportunity for teachers and students to engage directly with the data collected by these weather stations, allowing them to gain hands-on experience in meteorology and understand how scientists work with such data. To support education efforts, the Hub’s education team also aims to develop curricula that will go hand in hand with the weather station installations. We hope to provide an opportunity to enhance classroom learning experiences by integrating these data into science curricula to teach students concepts in math, physics, statistics, data visualization, and analysis, all while learning about the weather we experience. 

The project intends to foster community-engaged research, which means involving local communities and schools in using weather data for research purposes. Over time, data will be able to be used by Heat Hub researchers and the broader research community to learn more about the microclimates in these locations and particularly to investigate the topic of micro-urban heat islands. 

As of now, there is one pilot weather station already operational at San Diego French American School (SDFAS) in La Jolla. This station was donated by Hub researcher Sasha Gershunov and installed by Gershunov, Scripps PhD student Alexander Weyant, as well as middle school students and school personnel on June 9th. Plans for installations at public schools across San Diego are in the works (and we hope to begin with around 5 installations this school year), and this pilot installation has been extremely helpful in allowing us to test and assess best practices, which will inform future installations.

Data from the SDFAS weather station is already live and available for anyone to view online. Once our first official batch of stations is up and running, we plan to host a page on the Heat Hub website where anyone will be able to find real time and historical station data as well as data visualizations in one central location. 

Ultimately, this weather station project will simultaneously strengthen our education, research, and outreach goals, while creating innovative opportunities for fun and learning for thousands of students over time. Stay tuned for more information as we continue to roll out this exciting project!

Hub researcher Sasha Gershunov and his son with the weather station installed at San Diego French American School. Photo by Alexander Weyant.

Header image caption: The pilot weather station installed on the fence of San Diego French American School. Photo credit: Sasha Gershunov.