USQ supports local school with weather station
Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying Prof Frank Bullen
with Fairholme College Principal Linda Evans and two grade 12 students |
USQ’s Faculty of Engineering and Surveying recently signed an MOU with Toowoomba girl’s school, Fairholme College.
The University donated a weather station to the school this year, and the MOU will allow for the collaboration of weather monitoring activities.
Dean of the Faculty, Professor Frank Bullen, said the MOU highlighted USQ’s commitment to engaging with local schools and formally transferred ownership of the weather station to Fairholme College.
'The Faculty of Engineering and Surveying (FoES) has been making a concerted effort to engage with a number of local schools to help them meet their obligations with respect to the latest high curriculum, to expose their students to Engineering and Spatial Science, and to generate interest in USQ as preferred option for students’ tertiary education,' Professor Bullen said.
'The Faculty has significant resources available to help schools in this manner.'
The weather station will operate as a standalone station, allowing students to undertake analysis of weather data and compare with bureau of meteorology data.
It will also be networked with existing weather stations at USQ and other geographic locations to allow students to undertake spatial analysis of wind, temperature, pressure, and rainfall data from these different locations for things like flood predictions.
'The latest addition to the collection of resources is several fully operational weather stations that will be networked with existing weather stations at the Agriculture plot and the Engineering and Surveying building at USQ.
'Data from the weather stations will be useful for both primary and secondary schools to comply with the latest national curriculum requirements, particularly in key topical areas such as sustainability and the environment, as well as broader fields such as geography, science and technology.'
The Faculty plans to expand the system by adding further weather stations to the network next year.
'Ultimately the network will include at least one school in the Fraser Coast region, one at Springfield, one at Roma, and other schools in the local area. Data from these weather stations will be easily available through the main portal of the newly developed remote access laboratory (RAL) system at USQ,' Professor Bullen said.
Contact Details:
Connie-Louise Rego, USQ Media, 07 4631 2977