2022 12/05
SWMI AMS/NWA Chapter Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
West Michigan Aviation Academy
5363 44th St., Grand Rapids, MI 49512
Attendance: Dave Chapman, Alana Dachtler, Mike Holcomb, William Marino, Bill Oosterbaan, Tom Oosterbaan, Linda Paige, Aubrey Papke, Cort Scholten, Kim Scholten, Warren Wheeler
Call to order: 7:08 pm
Cort called the meeting to order and provided an update on the Chapter’s bank accounts on behalf of treasurer, Andy Schut. We have $75 in checking and $838 in savings. There was a brief discussion about the process of paying for speakers and it was suggested that the Chapter should consider increasing the limit of money that requires a majority vote from the membership before the board can schedule a speaker. Currently, the limit is $100.
Other matters discussed included Bill Marino’s retirement party which will be held at the Hillcrest CRC in Hudsonville on March 18th. Please contact Bill Marino if you would like to attend.
There are three more meetings scheduled before our summer break. Talks will include a presenter from the Gaylord NWS to discuss last year’s tornado and Professor Jason Keeler from Central Michigan University who will talk about their Mobile Mesonet.
The invited speaker for the evening was Dave Chapman, a recently retired high school science teacher of 44 years and active member of the AMS. He began his talk with an opinion, stating “ AMS has done more for K-12 education than any other organization in the world”. He shared several points supporting this opinion.
He talked about the AMS investing in education – especially pre-college education and the important impact it has on families. The thought is that students learning about weather in the classroom are more likely to bring that information home and share it with the rest of their family. This is especially crucial for severe weather preparedness.
Another important aspect of the AMS education efforts is the intention of creating a pipeline of new meteorologists entering the workforce as current professionals look to retire.
Dave also shared that many schools no longer have an earth science class available in their curriculum. The AMS aims to provide educational materials and a program to support teachers that chose to include those topics in their classroom. Approximately 20 years ago, the AMS Education Office started the Atmospheric Education Resource Associates (AERAs) as a way to help share information.
Another facet of the AMS outreach efforts is the annual meeting held in January. Dave has attended several annual meetings over the years and encourages chapter members to attend if possible. Two portions of the annual meeting that are of special interest to educators are the Education Symposium and the Student Conference. Both of these events are opportunities for non-professional weather enthusiasts to interact with the professional weather community.
The Board on Outreach and Pre-College Education is another great resource for educators. Dave actually served as chair of this board for a number of years. This board developed the Certified AMS Teacher Program which is one of three certification programs offered by the AMS. Dave described the program as rigorous with online courses and a summer program for continuing education.
He also shared information about The Data Streme Project which develops and maintains a weather-related curriculum. They also organize and maintain a mentorship program to support teachers. This spring, the project will celebrate its 55th semester. Within Data Streme, there are a few different courses of study. Project Atmosphere is held at the NWS center in Kansas City, MO and Project Ocean is held at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. The AMS is also in the process of adding a new summer program called Project Ice this summer. 12 educators including Dave will be a part of this summer’s pilot program to work out the kinks and they expect that the program will debut next year. The summer programs are competitively grant funded and over the years, roughly 23,000 teachers have directly participated in courses offered.
As a direct result of grant efforts handled by the AMS, the Federal Government decided to change policy on multi-year grants for institutions. This decision was based on the success of programs like Data Streme as well as feedback from people benefiting from the programs.
Dave wrapped up his talk with a request that chapter members make an effort to reach out to people that could benefit. If anyone would like to learn more about the opportunities from the AMS, please contact Dave directly. His email address is: chapmad@comcast.net
Dave answered a few questions from the audience at the end of his presentation and the meeting adjourned at 8:27 pm.