WeatherBug Station installed at Ben-Hem to benefit all students in Natick

Post date: Feb 02, 2016 7:54:0 PM

The Bennett-Hemenway Elementary School in Natick, MA has joined the WeatherBug Schools Program. The school has installed a new WeatherBug weather station and web-based educational software tools. The station is able to provide weather data for meteorological teams at WBZ (CBS Boston) and news stations across the country, to broadcast online and on-air. The weather station will also be used to enhance the science, technology and math school curriculum using the WeatherBug Achieve program. 

Visit the PTO's website at http://www.benhempto.org/weather for more information.

“We are incredibly pleased to bring the WeatherBug to the Bennett-Hemenway school,” said Ian P. Kelly, M. Ed, Principal at Bennett-Hemenway. “This tool will support our ongoing efforts to provide students with meaningful, real life learning opportunities that engage core academic and critical thinking skills.” 

Bringing the WeatherBug Schools Program to the school district was part of a collaborative effort between parents, teachers and administrators at Bennett-Hemenway Elementary School, Natick Public Schools and the Natick Education Foundation.  The program will enable students at Natick Public Schools to more effectively understand the science of meteorology.

“The Natick Schools values the addition of the WeatherBug Program to our comprehensive student science experience.  Better yet, the tool was acquired through the passion and collaboration of one of our Natick community members, an elementary school mother.  The program serves to teach our students aspects of science and we are grateful to have it,” commented Anna P. Nolin, Ed.D., Assistant Superintendent for Natick Public Schools.

The WeatherBug media partner in Boston, WBZ, leverages the WeatherBug national network of tracking stations to offer Boston area residents the most local, up-to-the-second weather information available in Boston and throughout the country. Now, WBZ will also be able to feature neighborhood-level reports from Bennett-Hemenway Elementary School during its daily newscasts on-air and online.

“WeatherBug is pleased to welcome the students and faculty of the Bennett-Hemenway Elementary School in Natick, MA, as the newest members of WeatherBug Schools Program,” said Frank McCathran, Director of WeatherBug Education. “WBZ is a strong media partner and we are delighted that a new school in the area is able to provide local weather information.”

The WeatherBug Schools Program is committed to helping protect schools and provide an engaging teaching tool for students nationwide. The WeatherBug interactive software program, WeatherBug Achieve, enables teachers to apply real-world conditions to help teach skills and concepts in math, science and geography. Teachers and students in K-12 have access to weather local weather conditions from any of the 8,000 WeatherBug sites across the country. Using WeatherBug Achieve, teachers can also create customized learning activities based on current and historical weather conditions from the WeatherBug stations and cameras located at the schools.

For more information on the WeatherBug Schools Program, visit www.weatherbugschools.com.  For more information on the Bennett-Hemenway Elementary School weather station, visit weather.benhempto.org.