Weather Station

New Weather Station Up and Running in our Outdoor Classroom at Applegate School

Students, their families, community members and staff at C.R. Applegate School now have access to the latest weather information thanks to the new weather station recently installed in the school’s outdoor classroom. The weather station was purchased with funds awarded to the school from the Freehold Township Education Foundation (FTEF) Building Blocks for Innovation grants program. Katie Harms (fourth grade teacher) and Michael Falgares (Technology Coordinator) teamed up to write the grant for the weather station. Ms. Harms and Mr. Falgares explained in the grant proposal that an interactive outdoor weather station is truly innovative and supports improved learning and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) concept connections and skills development for students. Beyond the classroom benefits, a weather station will provide students and staff at Applegate School with live weather data and advanced warning capabilities for severe weather. It will also serve as a valuable weather information resource that will be available to the community via the Internet using the school’s website and mobile app.  

• Barometric pressure
• Inside and outside humidity
• Wind chill
• Inside and outside temperature
• Windspeed and direction
• Dew point
• Rain
• Time of sunrise and sunset at Applegate School
• Moonphase
• Rain rate
• Rainfall totals for the last 24 storms
• Heat Index
• Local Forecast
• Highs & lows for most weather variables, with time and/or date, for each of the last 24 hours, days, months, and years.

The Weather Station will consists of an anemometer (measures wind speed and wind direction), a self-emptying rain gauge, temperature, humidity and barometric pressure sensors. The integrated sensor suite combines a rain collector, temperature sensor, humidity sensor, wind direction and anemometer–all into one package. The Vantage Vue weather station provides all of the following data: The live weather data is fed into interactive lessons, tools and activities to be used for enhanced mathematics, science, geography, and technology education in the school. Students and teachers will have access to the live data from the station on all school computers. The weather station can be used in all grades and will be available to all students and teachers both at school and at home (via the school website). It supports National and State Education Standards, EETT (Enhancing Education Through Technology), STEM concept developments, and is an integral part of a school’s push to improve academic initiatives in the outdoor classroom.