Zachary Keane with the installed weather station that uses the mount he designed.
When Colonial Middle School science classes learn about the weather, the local information they study now comes from a weather station installed on the outside of the building.
However, before it became part of the science program, the weather station started as a technology education challenge.
The task was to determine a way to mount the weather station onto the fence surrounding the dust collection system by the technology education classrooms.
“My engineering teacher and I came up with this idea for it to sit on top and add supports inside one of the fence posts,” said eighth grader Zachary Keane. “It’s kind of cool, because I’m doing something for the entire school and future classes.”
Zachary worked with technology education teacher Jeff Yeagle to create several prototypes using a 3-D printer, tweaking the design each time to determine what would work best.
“It’s a real-world project to design something that didn’t exist. They do so many things in class that they don’t see the connection to. Here’s something that’s real,” said Mr. Yeagle. “Zach’s model has his name on it, and it’s going to live here with the building as long as the weather station does.”
In another real-world application at the new school, technology education students designed a hook and labels that can be used on the cabinet doors throughout the building.
Are you interested in checking the local temperature, humidity, and other weather conditions? Click here to create an account and see what the weather looks like at Colonial Middle School!
Zachary Keane and Mr. Yeagle with the 3-D printed mount for the CMS weather station.