13-04-2015
Campbell Scientific and 40 children from Redmoor Academy in Hinckley recently featured on the BBC’s Stargazing Live ‘Eclipse Special’ taking part in a National Eclipse Weather Experiment (NEWEx) organised by Reading University.
The children were originally invited to Campbell Scientific offices in Shepshed to take part in the experiment using the company's weather station. However, the company was invited by the BBC to install a weather station at the Stargazing Live event organised by the BBC at Leicester Racecourse and to take the children there. The children along with Campbell Scientific’s STEM Ambassador, Iain Thornton, were filmed participating in the experiment live on TV.
BBC Newsround presenter Leah Boleto, TV Weatherman Peter Gibbs and Stargazing Live presenter Dr Lucy Green spent around an hour with Iain and the children and filmed three live segments with them during the eclipse.
The weather station was configured around a CR6 datalogger, this logger was chosen because of its web hosting capabilities. Measurements of wind speed, wind direction, solar radiation, air temperature and barometric pressure were taken. A custom display was created in RTMC Pro and this was hosted on the datalogger which acted as a web server. The logger, which features an integrated Ethernet port, was connected to a WiFi router so that the display could be accessed remotely on laptops and tablets nearby.
Weather measurements were taken before, during and for a short while after the eclipse and clearly showed a temperature dip and of course a reduction in the level of solar radiation. Winds were too light to show if there was any change in speed or direction.
Readings were uploaded to the NEWEx webpage and included in the national analysis.
Campbell Scientific has a long-standing relationship with Redmoor Academy and has supported them with equipment but also by releasing staff to act as STEM Ambassadors to work with pupils in lessons and at after-school STEM clubs.
A case study on this can be found here
