Dixie Heights High School purchased a weather station last spring using grant money and funds from the school's environmental club and student council.

Nicole Beletsas uses WeatherBug Achieve, an internet-based, real-time weather tracking program, to track the projected course of Hurricane Ivan in Earth Science class at Dixie Heights High School. (Enquirer photo/PATRICK REDDY)

A slender pole is attached to the roof of the school.

It has devices that measure rain, humidity, wind speed and wind direction.

It also has a video camera to shoot real-time images of weather in the area.

Wadsworth uses that data when teaching freshmen, sophomores and juniors in her earth science class.

"When you teach the kids things like weather, you can lose them in a lecture, especially at the end of the day when they want to fall asleep," said Wadsworth. "But pull up that technology and they love it."

Here's how it works:

Weather stations are set up across the country, gathering weather data from more than 7,000 communities.

The data is sent to WeatherBug Achieve, an online education technology resource the school subscribes to.

Through the Web site - www.weatherbugachieve.com - Wadsworth can choose the community she wants to study, the subject she is teaching and the grade level. Dozens of lessons will then appear, with each lesson using the real-time data from the community she chose.

There are also lessons in math, geography, social studies and language arts. Tuesday, Wadsworth's earth science students tracked Hurricane Ivan.

"We can project the way that the hurricane is going to go and see where it actually goes," said junior Nicole Beletsis of Erlanger.

Beletsis and the class have been tracking Ivan since it was a tropical depression.

"This is one of my most interesting classes," said junior Keith Groene of Crestview Hills. "It's hands-on almost every day and easier to learn because it's more visual."

Wadsworth said about 10 other Kenton County schools have subscribed to WeatherBug Achieve and use the data collected by Dixie's weather station and other stations across the country for their lessons. Any school can subscribe to WeatherBug Achieve for $1,500 a year.

"This takes it more global and gets them involved," said Wadsworth. "The kids just think this is mega-cool."

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