WeatherBlur: Connecting Students, Scientists, and Communities to their Local Weather Data

What do a third grader in a remote island school, a researcher in Antarctica, and a meteorologist in Maine have in common? They’re all part of WeatherBlur, a community-based co-created citizen science online community. This program supports geographically isolated communities in developing their own research programs, called investigations, to help them solve a local problem that is related to weather or climate. Over the past 10 years, WeatherBlur has connected over 1000 K-8 students and their teachers with scientists and community members to collect weather and environmental data to solve problems.

Investigations initiated through WeatherBlur include bycatch, king tides, water quality, soil and ocean vs air temperatures, and microplastics in the ocean. Through the online community, students are able to propose and refine investigation topics with the help of teachers and scientists. Rather than rely on questions proposed by others, WeatherBlur encourages students to create their own questions. This begins on the website where students can ask questions and discuss a topic. Scientists, teachers, and other students work together to refine the question to make it SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant and Timely). After a data collection methodology is established, participants from Maine to Alaska to the Gulf Coast can all collect data via a mobile app and uploaded it to the website where analysis can be performed.

We will examine the influence of WeatherBlur on student learning and science standards and provide examples of WeatherBlur investigations. As a platform that is based online and in the community, WeatherBlur has the ability to inspire STEM learning in remote locations and allows students, teachers, and scientists to build a community of learners.