Published: April 19, 2009 08:31 am      

Gage teacher, students honored

Gage science teacher Roberta Chance was presented with the first Oklahoma Mesonet Public Service Award as part of a ceremony at the school to honor five of her students who finished first at a science fair in Norman.

Chance has been teaching science for more than 20 years and won the award for “her outstanding service in the area of weather education.” Last year she was named the National Weather Association’s Teacher of the Year.

Her students were presented with their awards first during the ceremony on Friday afternoon.

Klancy Best, Ryan Creed and Jalen Gaines built the KRJ Rocket Launcher that won first place in their division at the Oklahoma Mesonet Science Fair on Feb. 21.

Their project was designed as a cheaper way to make a water bottle launcher. They said there was a launcher available for purchase in stores, but they felt that it would be easier to make from scratch. Their science project proved this.

Kodi Crow and Danielle Schultz entered a project titled “Do misconceptions exist about the paths that tornadoes track?”

The two girls sent out surveys to schools all over Northwestern Oklahoma. The surveys asked students about storm movement and what they should do in the event of a tornado. The goal was to determine if school administrators are teaching students the correct precautions to take during a tornado.

The science fair was held at the National Weather Center. Members from the Center in Norman judged the projects.

This was the 17th year that the fair was held. Gage competed in the fair for the 12th time. In all, over 1,000 projects were entered.

Members of the Oklahoma Mesonet were on-hand to present the awards on Friday. Andrea Melvin, outreach programs coordinator for the organization, said Chance was one of the first teachers who was trained on their system shortly after the organization started in 1991.

The Oklahoma Mesonet is a network of weather stations across the state. They are responsible for producing the Oklahoma First, Oklahoma Fire and Earthstorm programs that are used by emergency response teams. There are two weather stations in the area, one located in Woodward and the other in Arnett.

Chance’s award was a surprise as the ceremony was originally intended to be just for the students. The opportunity to see Chance in her element with her students as opposed to at a science fair was just too good to pass up, said Dr. Ken Crawford, director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey.