SCHOOL: Wake Forest Charter Academy

GRADE LEVEL: 2nd

PROGRAM: Weather Wise

INSTRUCTOR: Seth Shelby

Scientist Seth’s Experience:

In what started as a pretty frigid morning loading experiments into my car quickly shifted into a warm and welcoming atmosphere as I walked through the doors at Wake Forest Charter Academy. It was clear as I made my way into Mrs. Skoll’s class that the 2nd graders were very excited about transforming their classroom into a giant weather experiment. Mrs. Skoll and her class were the perfect way to start off the day, and really did a wonderful job with helping each other and me with their patience and listening skills (A recurring theme at this school).

Today’s experiments had everything to do with the weather. We talked about air molecules, and that if you understand how they behave you can really understand the weather. We explored positive and negative molecules in creating lightning, and even got to touch some safe electricity with our plasma globe. When we got to the weather instruments portion of the lab it was always a hit. In Mrs. Simmons’s class there were multiple students who got wind speeds up to 30mph+ on the anemometers. I was highly impressed! Everyone worked together so well, and I was amazed with how well they respected the instruments and each other.

Among many highlights at this school was how wonderful of a job with staying engaged each class did. Engagement goes beyond excitement, and every student there seemed to ask great questions and really challenged themselves throughout the whole day. I was really taken back by how polite the students and staff are as a whole at this school. As I packed up at the end of each session students were continually telling me “thank you”, yet it was I who was grateful. I can’t wait to visit Wake Forest Charter Academy again!