PORTLAND, Texas — The next Dale Nelson or Stefanie Lauber might be right in KRIS 6 News' backyard.
At W.C. Andrews Elementary, 5th grade students have started providing their own forecasts for the morning announcements.
The opportunity started as a class assignment for Ms. Kristin Velasco’s class. The students were required to research the weather in the area for a day, and create a presentation where they pretended to be a meteorologist.
“We learned climate and the weather, and how the humidity can be,” said Collin Brown.
Velasco gave the top presenters the chance to be the 'meteorologist' for the school.
“First it was an assignment," said Mauricio Rodriguez. "It seemed a bit difficult — I had to redo a couple of times. When I started doing it, it got easier.”
The students made the opportunity their own, and injected their personality into the assignment.
“When she first said they were doing a flip grid, it was scary,” said Josiah Guevara. “But when I was writing the script with what I want to say, it was pretty cool.”
“I was kind of scared, but I also felt pretty cool and awesome,” Brown said about going on the morning announcements.
The students write their own scripts, and do the research themselves, using various websites.
“It shows the precipitation, humidity, and the temperature — high and low,” Yordany Espinosa said about the website he does his research with.
On Thursday, the students got to meet with KRIS 6 News meteorologist Stefanie Lauber, who told them about her job, and what goes into being a meteorologist. The students asked Lauber questions, and learned more about the science behind making a weather forecast.
The piece of information that resonated with the students the most is when Lauber likened the way the atmosphere moves to how the ocean operates. The boys said they will use the information they learned in their forecasts moving forward.
The students like sharing their forecasts with their fellow students, and making it fun.
Espinosa said his favorite part of his forecast is, “entertaining the crowd.”
Guevara said he tries to have fun with his forecast as well.
“(Ms. Velasco) says have fun and write what you feel. When I do the thing I make it fun, I put ‘back to the studio,’” he said. “Make it entertaining and fun for the people listening.”
The students said they don’t know if they want to be meteorologists when they get older, but they're having fun doing forecasts for the morning announcements.
