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Weather Camp lets teens explore mysteries of meteorology
William J. Syrett (far left), Penn State weather station coordinator and director of the Penn State Weather Camp, helps high school students launch a weather balloon equipped with an instrument package from the roof of Walker Building at University Park campus. The students used the data they collected during the camp’s meteorology sessions. Dave Shelly—Penn State Image Resource Center	The Penn State Weather Camp helped 30 students in grades eight, nine and 10 understand the science behind predicting the weather.   Penn State is a national leader in the field of meteorology. One out of four meteorologists in the United States attended the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ meteorology program.   Three meteorologists in the Department of Meteorology shared their knowledge with young people interested in meteorology during the one-week camp, conducted in the department’s classrooms and labs. Enrollment was limited to give participants an intensive learning experience.   William J. Syrett, Penn State weather station coordinator and instructor in meteorology, directed the Weather Camp and taught some of the workshops.   Dr. Gregory S. Jenkins, assistant professor of meteorology, and Paul G. Knight, instructor in meteorology and the Pennsylvania State Climatologist, served as camp instructors.   Weather Camp participants learned how to make weather forecasts, how storms form, what the weather was like when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, how to read and analyze weather charts, how to make a television weather presentation and much more. They also launched weather balloons and explored Internet weather sites. The camp gave the teens opportunities to explore careers in meteorology with Penn State meteorologists. An outreach program of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ Department of Meteorology and Conferences and Institutes