1.31.03
Currently there are four weather collection units in the field, one located at each of the following schools: Auburn, Blacksburg, Shawsville, and Narrows. These units can collect the following:
- Time of data collection
- Wind direction, speed, gust, and chill
- Humidity
- Temperature
- Barometer reading
- Total rain
Basic ideas for using the data include:
- Displaying weather information on a map
- Weather data on the map very general -> wind direction, speed, and temperature. Clicking on the WeatherIcon could bring up a detailed data page, which would include all of the weather data, history, graphs, et cetera.
- Embedding weather data as an object on a user's webpage (or within other bridge components that support embedding, e.g., whiteboards and scriptable objects)
- Graphical or textual summaries
- Tables or graphs of historical data. (The existing charting tools should be able to handle graphing data from any object that conforms to the Swing
TableModel interface.)
- Gauge or thermometer visualizations (not currently implemented) could indicate single values
Abstract ideas for using the data include:
- Weather prediction (there are several weather prediction models, some of which can be used with the data)
- Weather prediction can be used as a lesson in scientific reasoning (generating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, et cetera)
- Discussions of regional differences in weather
Things to ponder:
- What sort of history is required for the weather data?
- What are the scalability issues with saving histories? (How big will these get?)
- each daily report (CSV file) is roughly 3.3 KB
- Can weather data from other sources (http://classroom.aws.com, Blacksburg NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) page, et cetera) be used to increase the value of our data?
- What level of interactivity can be generated? Student involvment making weather prediction during morning announcements at school, Robin Reed (local meteorologist) involvement?
- Can a weather cam with a live feed be set up? Would that be useful or just "neat"?
2.10.03
Virtual Weather Station generates a jpg that can be used to view current weather data. You can see it here
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