Utah 2013

[isitsnowingyet]

Hi everyone,

I'm a hydrologist with the National Weather Service (Colorado Basin RFC in Salt Lake City). One of the meteorologists from the Salt Lake City WFO and I are working to create a "Meteorology 101" presentation for Science Olympiad competitors and/or their coaches. We are not the event coordinators/supervisors for the Meteorology event, so we don't know what is going to be required knowledge for the regional or state tournaments. However, we would like to help students (1) learn more about the weather in general and (2) improve their results at their SO competitions in the Meteorology event.

Currently, we're considering a presentation of meteorology basics (maybe 45 minutes or so), with a Q&A session afterward for students to ask questions of NWS scientists, helping the students to clear up any confusion they may have regarding aspects of meteorology.

Tentatively, the best date for us would be Feb 7, 2013. Depending on interest, we could do the presentation in-house at our building in SLC (limited space), or we could set up some sort of webinar (especially if students from schools far from SLC want to participate). We figure that sometime in the after-school hours would be best for students and their coaches, but we can be flexible on time of day.

So, my questions for students and coaches are:

1.) Would a "Meteorology 101" event/Q&A session with NWS scientists be something in which you would like to participate?
2.) Would you be able to attend an in-house event in Salt Lake City, or would you prefer a webinar?
3.) What time of day generally works best for you (including time zone if you're not on Mountain Time)?

I'm not completely sure if this is the right venue for an announcement of/gauging of interest for a "Meteorology 101" for UT coaches and students. If anyone has a suggestion for a different way to get in touch with interested students and coaches, please let me know!

Thanks very much,
Stacie

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Stacie Bender
Hydrologist
Colorado Basin River Forecast Center
http://www.cbrfc.noaa.gov

[Skink]

Hi. I wanted to say I think what you're offering is very cool.

I'm not completely sure if this is the right venue for an announcement of/gauging of interest for a "Meteorology 101" for UT coaches and students. If anyone has a suggestion for a different way to get in touch with interested students and coaches, please let me know!

I think you should try a more direct approach since you do not see many Utah folks here (guests notwithstanding), so word may not spread. I would try contacting the Utah State directors (scroll to the bottom of the form for contact information including a phone number) because they probably have an outlet--e-mail at the very least--where they can send your inquiries more directly to teams in UT SO.

[isitsnowingyet]

Hi Skink, thanks for the quick reply! I've been in contact w/ some of the state organizers in UT but have not pushed the idea of sending out email to some sort of mailing list. I'll check in with them again.

[Nerdy One]

1) definitely, even though I'm not doing meteorology : ) science geek all around!
2) this would probably work for me, b/c I live less than an hour away from SLC, but a webinar would probably make it easier for more people to participate.
3) you would probably want somewhere around five o'clock MT, so that Pacific would be out of school and it wouldn't be too late for Central or Eastern.
Those are my personal opinions, but you're in charge, so obviously you should go with what you think will work
I think it's supercool that you're doing this, by the way!

[isitsnowingyet]

Thanks, Nerdy One. Since there haven't been too many Utah bites yet, we might consider a webinar and open it up to teams nationwide. Thanks for the feedback, particularly on the times of day!

[mnstrviola]

I'd really be interested in a webinar as well! and yeah, 5-6 MT is good timing.

[isitsnowingyet]

I'm happy to see that more people are replying with interest. Looks like we'll probably open this up to all (not just UT). I'll run it by our NWS group and have more details soon!