Minnesota 4-H Foundation

Small Grant Evaluation Form

Project Name: Winona Area Weather Reporting System

Amount of Grant: $1,000

Organization: Wilson Fireflies 4H Club

Person Completing this Report: Adam Frisch and James Jefferson

Address: Route 3 Box 88, Winona, Minnesota 55987

Phone: (507)-452-8441

1. Briefly state your project’s purpose in terms of how it relates to positive youth development:

The weather station project involved the use of electronics, computers, the internet and

amateur radio. Through learning about these, youth were able to see something fun and were able to learn about them at the same time. These skills and thought processes are becoming critical for an increasingly high-tech society.

2. Describe the important learning experiences carried out in the project:

Throughout the project several youth learned about many technological fields like electronics, computers and weather. By building and deploying a weather station that has its data posted on the internet many people were able to learn from it. But the most valuable experience gained from this project was that of team work. In order for the project to have been a success everyone had to work together.

The electronics involved with the weather station and internet gateway were a learning experience for the team. One of the key components of the weather station, the actual meteorological data collection circuit had bugs in its internal software. Because these bugs were unknown to the team we had to troubleshoot the circuit on our own and eventually communicate with the circuit designer. Other electronic circuits were easier to deal with, but they still presented opportunities to learn and optimize designs and ideas.

Team members have written software to collect and process the data from the weather station. Advanced concepts like automated telemetry collection, relational databases, interpreted programming, compiled programs, and web interfaces. The computer and internet interface has possibilities for team members to expand data analysis and display techniques in the future.

The younger members of the 4H club enjoyed learning about weather when members of the project team made presentations to the club. An aspect that they particularly enjoyed was severe weather. At least one 8-year-old member of the club enjoyed learning about weather so much that she attended a three hour course on observing severe weather. She completed the course and now a federally certified Skywarn spotter.

3. Who was involved in this project?

Number of Youth: 28 (7 active individuals and 21 club members)

a. 12 female 16 male

b. 9 5-8 7 9-12

8 13-16 4 17-19

c. 26 White 2 Multi-racial

d. 28 Rural

e. This was there first 4H experience: 2

Number of Adults: 7

a. 1 female 6 male

b. 5 New to 4H

c. 2 parents of participants

The family whose farm the weather station is located at has expressed interest to joining our 4H club.

4. What was the role of youth in planning and conducting the project?

The majority of the work in this project was done by two youth. The club was continually informed of the projects status and made such decisions as weather station placement.

Unfortunately our project was not able to include as many youth as we has originally planned. Our original plan, pending acceptance for a $2,000 grant, was to build two weather stations. On the first station the team leaders would design and assemble so identify any potential problems and gain knowledge of the system. The second station was to be built mainly by the 4H club members with supervision from the two youth leaders. We were able to accomplish our first goal and we are now ready to continue on in the future with the second goal with more commitment then ever.

The team members made presentations to the 4H club every month informing them of the status of the station and asking for their input. Such presentations and discussions routinely exceeded 15 minutes. Having an active discussion for so long is a remarkable accomplishment for our club! The youth had a very active role in finding a location for the weather stations.

5. List the collaborating agencies and indicate if these were new collaborations?

Jarvis Computer Software followed through with their commitment to provide an internet connection and custom software help. Jarvis Computer Software’s internet connection offer was very appreciated because another connection was not able to be established. They have also been very helpful in installing the antennas required for the project.

Frisch Electric provided wire and other miscellaneous electrical materials needed to complete the project.

Professor Peter H. Anderson of Morgan State University provided the weather station free of charge. We were able to work with Professor Anderson to help him fix software problems with his station.

The Wiscoy Valley Land Coop. provided the site for the weather station. The Wiscoy community members are all excited about having the weather station and access to the station’s data. Part of the excitement about the weather station was due to the station being solar powered just like all of the houses on the coop. The Wiscoy community is interested in the meteorological data for analysis of their organic crop growth.

All of these parties were new collaborations to 4H.

6. What were the program’s strengths?

I think that this project has fulfilled most of its original goals. Most importantly we accomplished teaching several youth and adults about electronics, computers, weather and the internet.

7. What were the program’s weaknesses?

The one weakness that we had is that we were not able to give the youth as much hands on experience as we had originally intended. This was due to the fact that we expended our budget in design of the single weather station. We had originally wanted to have the club help build a second weather station so that they could get more hands on experience.

8. How has program changed your community?

Many people will be able to make use of the data provided by the weather station since it will all be posted on the internet. In particular, members of the Wiscoy Valley Land Coop. have expressed great interest in the data from the weather for use in crop analysis.

Many youth throughout the community have also gained a new understanding of electronics, computers, weather, and the internet.

9. What are your plans to continue what was started with this program?

In the future we plan to further in teaching the youth about the internet, weather and electronics. We would like to take weather data from the weather station and teach the youth about what it means. We also to hope to be able to in the future be able to get another weather station and let more youth be involved in the building process now that

the design phase of the project has been completed.

The project leaders are starting another project to produce smaller weather stations that would be more economical to produce.

The internet gateway sub-project is about to go into full-swing. The internet gateway will provide public access to all of the data and have options for analysis of the data. At the time of writing an rudimentary interface has been created for accessing weather information. It is expected that a more featured interface will be functional in the next few weeks.

Station Items:	Cost:
Miscellaneous Wire	DONATED
Transceiver Power Cord	$1.19
3 feet velcro	$7.02
20 feet RG-8 Mini Coax	$11.80
BNC/PL-259 Adapter	$2.59
Fuse Holder	$1.59
70cm amateur handheld transceiver	$160.00
PHA Weather Station Parts - Basic KIT	FREE
PHA Weather Station Parts - Barometric Pressure	FREE
PHA Weather Station Parts - Wind	FREE
Relative Humidity Sensor	$22.41
Anemometer	$49.41
Rainfall Measurement device	$31.41
Wind vane	$42.75
Anemometer Bearing	$1.80
5V Power Supply	$5.00
Weatherproof enclosure	$52.12
12volt 6.5Ah gel cell battery	DONATED
70cm yagi antenna	$8.00
Switchcraft Weather Proof Connectors	$20.00
KPC-3 TNC	ON LOAN
Coaxial cable connectors	$8.00
Solar Panel	$130.00
Solar Charge Controller	$30.00
4.5" * 10' wooden pole	$12.00
PVC Instrument Mounts	$11.00
10' TV mast	$10.00
Sub Total:	$618.09
Hub Site equipment:	Cost:
70cm amateur mobile rig	$279.95
PK-88 TNC	ON LOAN
Astron 35amp power supply	ON LOAN
19" Rack	DONATED
Aluminum for rack shelf	$22.00
Rack welding and steel	$17.00
Sub Total:	$318.95
Internet Gateway equipment:
386 Computer	FREE
586 Computer	DONATED
Pentium 166 Computer	ON LOAN
70cm amateur handheld transceiver	$160.00
70cm yagi antenna	$8.00
12volt power supply	$32.99
Pentium 166 Computer (yes there are 2)	ON LOAN
Cyclades multi-port serial card	DONATED
Coax	DONATED
Computer software	FREE
Sub Total:	$200.99
Project Total:	$1,138.03

Color Key:

DONATED

DISCOUNT

FREE

ON-LOAN

Signature of Project Coordinator: