Roundtable member Susan Kruger sent me this from Michigan. Her husband Brian is a teacher and a student at his school is a junior meteorologist. With our giant blizzard brewing in the Midwest, this is timely:
This is weather blog that has been maintained by a student from Brian’s high school for years. The student, John, is now off at meteorology school in OK, but he had such a following here in Lake Orion MI that he still maintains the blog. His blog has gone viral in the last few days, in anticipation of a major storm expected to hit south-east Michigan on Wednesday. He was actually contacted by local TV and radio stations today…even though he’s still in Norman, OK.
He developed his notoriety by predicting “snow days” with near-perfect accuracy, far better than the “TV guys.” Our school superintendent actually consulted with him two years ago when he was still a student and made the call for a snow day based on his input. If you have a few minutes, you might get a kick out of his video: http://orionsnow0809.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-video-snowfall-map.html (this is only the second video he has done, ever). At one point, he very tactfully disagrees with the National Weather Service…and gives some sound reasoning for doing so.
Knowing your views on the largely untapped potential of young people, I thought you’d appreciate seeing a teenager call out the NWS! :) I also wanted to ask if you would keep me in mind for any other resources you may come across like the RSA “Changing Educational Paradigms” video. I am sending that video out to my list tomorrow…It illustrates EXACTLY all of my concerns/frustrations with education and I appreciate you sharing it last week.
Thanks,
Susan
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3 Comments on “Teenage Weather Blogger vs. National Weather Service”
Results are great when you love to do it.
Congrats.
Very cool! I think this same rule could be applied in several industries: That when something is being done on a large scale (national), that there are going to be opportunities for improvement at a local level. I also see this with Google where they create an algorithm that is supposed to take care of glitches on a large scale, but there are still exceptions to the solution working in particular cases.
Plus, we all know it’s easy to get “soft” and not try as hard once you’re doing well (e.g., Nat’l Weather Service). Then someone like John comes along and calls their bluff. (:
Thanks for the post.
Markus
This is awesome! A very smart, well-spoken student doing something he knows well, and obviously loves.
Several different things to like about this story, but the best part of it for me is seeing somebody so young “just doing it.”
Although it is certainly very well done, it isn’t quite perfect. And that is what I like – even without high-end lighting and sound for example, he simply made it happen. If he keeps on this path as a “doer,” he will go far indeed.
Congratulations to John, and good job by Susan and Perry to give him some visibility and kudos!