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October 16, 2006
Meteorology student group named best in the nation
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Four times the Iowa State University student chapter of the American
Meteorological Society (AMS) has won "runner-up" Honor Roll status in
the national Student Chapter of the Year competition.
However, the group wasn't satisfied with being second best and decided
to do something about it.
"We've added an academic chair to our officers and that individual organizes
study session helping meteorology students in lower level classes in calculus,
physics and chemistry," said Justin Gehrts, a senior meteorology major
and president of the Iowa State AMS student chapter. "We think this is
why we finally won this year."
The effort paid off as Iowa State has been named the Student Chapter of
the Year from the national AMS in 2006-07.
"This is quite an honor," said William Gallus, professor of geological
and atmospheric sciences. "The students have worked very hard the last
few years for this award."
The student group is very active, both on and off campus.
"We have a large outreach program," said Liz White, a senior
meteorology major and the group's vice president. "We discuss severe
weather safety at the local elementary schools and participate in several
science nights in the Ames area."
Last year the student group also sponsored a severe weather poster contest
from central Iowa school districts. Six different schools participated
last year with the winners receiving a weather radio and tickets to the
IMAX film "Forces of Nature" at the Science Center of Iowa in Des Moines.
The winners and their posters were also featured on Des Moines television
stations WHO and KCCI.
Each year a variety of guest speakers are brought to campus to speak to
meteorology majors about their chosen profession.
"We bring in speakers that normally aren't on campus to talk about their
jobs to try to interest students in different meteorology professions,"
White said.
The student group also coordinates a local weather forecasting contest
among its members and participates in a national competition as well.
They have organized spring break trips to weather-related locales including
the National Hurricane Center in Florida, NASA headquarters in Houston
and the National Severe Storms Lab in Oklahoma.
One of the longest-running projects of the student meteorology chapter
is "Cy's Eyes on the Skies," a 20-minute information weather show produced,
directed and anchored by students on ISU TV 18. The show is shown Monday
and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. and gives meteorology majors invaluable practice
being a television meteorologist.
"This is an incredibly good experience for us," said Kaj Johnson-O'Mara,
a senior meterology major. "We couldn't have this practice otherwise unless
we had an internship at a television station."
The students make use of a studio with two professional graphics-rendering
computers that allows students to get the hands-on experience they need
for their broadcast careers.
Throw in an annual student/faculty dinner and other social events and
you have a very active and close-knit student chapter of more than 50
members.
But the addition of the academic component to their goals has made this
group unique among AMS student chapters nation wide.
Under the leadership of Johnson-O'Mara, review sessions have been established
for meteorology students who are having difficulties in courses in mathematics,
physics and chemistry.
"We all know several examples of students who love the science of meteorology
but can't complete their degree because of the troubles they have in these
classes," Johnson-O'Mara said. "Our goal is to keep students in the program
and we think the review sessions have definitely helped in that regard."
The group is always looking for more activities to bring into the fold.
One of this year's goals is to offer CPR training to its members. Many
of the students are storm chasers and it was thought it would be a good
idea if they knew CPR.
"The more things we can do to help people who might be injured as a result
of a severe storm the better," White said. "We think we need to be responsible
citizens."
Iowa State's student chapter of the American Meteorological Society has
been named the national Student Chapter of the Year. The group's officers
include, from the left, Justin Gehrts, president; Kaj Johnson-O'Mara, academic
chair; Liz White, vice president; and Rachel Butterworth, secretary.
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