Indoors And Out, Students Learn Valuable Meteorology Lessons

LITTLETON, Colo. (CBS4) - There's no better place to learn about the weather than the outdoors.

That's why Eric Rooney, a seventh- and eighth-grade teacher at Littleton Preparatory Charter School, takes his lessons outside.

"We're approaching four-tenths of an inch, getting close to a half-inch," Rooney says while conducting a weather experiment on one of his homemade instruments.

Outside the classroom, Rooney and his students monitor things like daily temperature and precipitation through a weather station he built himself. His class is also learning as part of CBS4's Weather Watchers program.

"I want to instill the importance of weather and the study of weather in my students," he says. "It's changing so much every day, and I want them to know why it's changing"

Inside class, Rooney teaches the basics of meteorology through real-life examples, using past weather events that his students remember.

One of his many goals includes teaching safety by studying extreme weather.

"When my students are able to understand potentially what could be coming or what's expected, they're able to be prepared, their families are able to be prepared," Rooney says.