1. A Guide to Using WeatherBug Achieve
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A Guide to Using WeatherBug Achieve

2. Welcome to WeatherBug Achieve
Welcome to WeatherBug Achieve! WeatherBug Achieve turns your school's natural environment into a learning environment. By combining meteorology with technology, it energizes the classroom experience for both teachers and their students in Science, Math, and Geography.
More than 8,000 schools across the country participate in our award-winning WeatherBug Schools program. Its easy-to-install and -use tracking stations feed live local weather data into interactive activities, tools, and standards-based lessons. Even non-tech savvy teachers can quickly incorporate its technology into their curriculum.
This guide will show you what’s available and where to find it within Achieve. It is our hope this guide will help you become as comfortable using WeatherBug Achieve in your classroom as you are using other resources currently available in your school.
Please contact us with questions, comments, or concerns.
, ext. 4302
Table of Contents
How Does WeatherBug Achieve Work? 3
WeatherBug Tracking Station & Indoor Equipment 4
Accessing WeatherBug Achieve 5
Your WeatherBug Achieve Home 8
WeatherBug Achieve Support 9
WeatherBug Achieve Activities 10
WeatherBug Achieve Community 15
WeatherBug Achieve Tools 16
WeatherBug Achieve Library 23
Archiving WeatherBug Achieve Resources 24
The WeatherBug Family 27
Contact Information 28 2

3. How does WeatherBug work?1
Tracking Station on top of school collects weather data in real-time
On TV for everyone in your community!
At your school through
At home or work for parents, teachers and administrators 4
And into
where it is then accessible…
How does WeatherBug work?
Data is pushed across Internet 3
Measured data is collected and processed in the school on WeatherBug equipment 2

4. WeatherBug Tracking Station and Indoor Equipment
Records 27 real-time parameters
Anemometer
- Wind speed
- Wind direction
Sensor Shelter
- Temperature
- Relative humidity
- Light intensity
Rain Gauge
- Liquid precipitation
WeatherBug Cameras
- High performance outdoor color cameras
- Captures still and time-lapse images
Digital Display
Anemometer
Sensor Shelter
Blue Bug Box
Rain Gauge
Digital Display
- Large, easy to read numerals
- English/Metric units
Green/Blue Bug Box
- Replaces the need for a computer in
tracking station installations
Motion Camera
HD Camera 4

5. Accessing WeatherBug Achieve
WeatherBug Achieve is a web-based application you can access from any computer connected to the Internet. To start using WeatherBug Achieve, open a web browser and go to:
WeatherBug Achieve is
best viewed at a
resolution of
1024 x 768 pixels
and with at least
Internet Explorer 5.0 or
Netscape Navigator 6.0
and Flash Player 6.0
or newer 5

6. Registration & Login Process
Student Login
Students enter:
School’s zip code
Choose school name
Select grade level
WeatherBug Achieve
student version will launch.
Registration & Login Process
School Key Code
Teachers Registration & Login
To access the teacher edition of WeatherBug Achieve, teachers are required to create their own
User Name and Password. Select the “Register Online” button and complete the entire form. Use the
provided School Key Code from your Membership Certificate. Contact your school’s Achieve Lead Teacher
if you do not have a School Key Code. After your initial registration, you will only need your User Name
and Password to access WeatherBug Achieve’s teacher edition. 6

7. The Two WeatherBug Achieve Views
Grades Teacher and Student Views Grades Pre-K - 5 Teacher and Student Views
The WeatherBug Achieve view you have access is dependant upon the grade levels at your school.
There is no difference in content; the views are designed to engage students at different grade levels. 7

8. 8 Metric/English User Identification Your WeatherBug Achieve Home
Change units of measure
for entire product
User Identification
This section identifies whether you are in
a teacher or student mode, your name when
in teacher mode, and your school name.
Your
WeatherBug Achieve
Home
Current Weather
Roll your mouse
over the weather
station components
to see your current
weather information
Navigation Bar
Where Your Data
Comes to Life!
Weather Window
Select one of the tabs
to view the most recent
camera, radar, or
the latest weather video.
Click on
the image and you will
be directed to the
appropriate tool for
more viewing options.
Featured Articles
Timely and seasonal
news briefs and articles
for your reference and
use in the classroom 8

9. WeatherBug Achieve Support
AYC Training Over 3 hours of self-paced training is included. Divided into 5 – 15 minutes, the training modules may be accessed when you want and as often as you wish.
Update Profile Change your password, address, and grade levels in this section.
Contact Us The best way to contact us; Your comments, feedback, and request for assistance are important to us! 9

10. Activity Explorer allows you to Search By Activity to find quickly an appropriate Lesson
Plan or Interactive Lesson by searching subject area, grade level, lesson type
and/or keywords.
Activity Explorer allows teachers to Search By Standard to find the
lessons that align with specific standards you wish to address. 10

11. refine the search with grade level and subject area.
Search By Activity
Search By Activity to find a Lesson Plan or Interactive Lesson. You can further
refine the search with grade level and subject area. 11

12. Search By Standard
Search By Standard to find lessons that align with your state’s standards.
Find your state and drill down to the grade and standard you wish to address. 12

13. Exploration Zone
Exploration Zone allows K- 5 students to move through pre-designed Weather Units.
Weather Units have Interactive Lessons, pre-selected WeatherBug Tracking
Stations and WeatherBug Cameras to enhance the lesson, and Worksheets
to supplement the Unit concepts. 13

14. More Interdisciplinary Activities
Meteorologist of the Day
A daily activity that lets students be
the school’s meteorologist.
BrainStorm
Teacher submitted lessons and activities
Weather Videos
Weather concepts and phenomena explained
Meteorology Match Game
An activity designed to test
students knowledge of both current
weather patterns and geography.
SunWise Lessons
EPA’s SunWise program lessons for sun safety.
Weather Casts
The latest local, national and severe weather casts.
Lewis and Clark Weather Portal
This activity chronicles weather’s role in the Corps of
Discovery’s journey.
Weather Labs
Weather gadgets and widgets to screensavers and podcasts 14

15. WeatherBug Schools Community
Info Center All of the shared community resources needed to make Achieve a success at your school!
Teachers Academy A group of Achieve users to contact about what works.
Connections A newsletter fro registered Achieve teachers.
Your PHOTOS Students and teachers can view engaging images and teachers can Upload student weather photos or photos of student projects. 15

16. Weather Observations
Provides various formats for current and historical data.
Graph two parameters to investigate the relationship between. 16

17. Camera Loops and WeatherBug DataCam
Camera Timelapse & WeatherBug Cameras provide still, enlarged, and time lapsed pictures from the closest, operational WeatherBug Camera.
WeatherBug DataCam combines time lapsed images and graphed weather data from the closest, operational WeatherBug tracking station and camera. Move your mouse over the graph to see how the weather data correlates to both current and historical images. 17

18. Map Gallery Tool allows students to create their own weather maps based upon current and historical conditions. The tool contains multiple topographical maps within each region that show satellite imagery and climatic data from WeatherBug tracking stations within the region.
Local/Metro Maps display up to 6 school sites allowing you to observe live, local weather information and compare surrounding weather conditions.
Weather Maps display isolated radar and satellite imagery outside the Map Gallery tool. 18

19. Storm Central 19 Storm Central has all the tools you need to
Satellite, Radar Maps and Outlook
statements keep you updated
with the latest information.
Interactive Storm Tracker
Track and investigate current and
historical storms and hurricanes.
Storm Central has all the tools you need to
investigate severe weather due to tropical storms and hurricanes. 19

20. 20 Local Summary Automatically selects 10 WeatherBug
sites in your local area for a
comparison of local climate
conditions.
U.S. Summary
Allows you to compare
national WeatherBug sites
from up to 8 regional areas
of the U.S. in the same table.
Canada Summary
Allows you to compare
Canadian WeatherBug sites
in the same table. Think
EXTREME conditions! 20

21. 21 Storm Display Allows you to investigate live National Service
Service (NWS)
advisories posted for
the US. These watches
and warnings can be
viewed on both national
and state maps.
Drilling down to the
county level provides the
text for the most recently
posted NWS advisories. 21

22. Change Tracking Station and Change Camera
This tool allows you to select a different WeatherBug
Tracking station and/or camera. Once a new station
and/or camera is selected, all tools, lessons, and activities
will use the selected school’s data and/or images. 22

23. 23 Library A set of resources for teachers and students
alike! Three glossaries,
more images, and daily
weather facts… 23

24. Exporting Graphics from WeatherBug Achieve into Other Applications
Choose the photo, map, graph, or table you wish to export.
“Copy” the image or table.
Open the application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Place the image or table in the new program.
The chosen image will now be placed in the document. You can adjust the placement within the document as necessary.
**Flash images require the use of the Print Screen feature rather than copy. 1 3 4 2 24

25. Import a Table into Excel for Additional Manipulation
To create graphs, limit/sort the data shown, and calculate
the sum, average, mean, median, and/or mode for
weather parameters. 1
Within WeatherBug Achieve, use your mouse to highlight the section of the table or entire table you wish to export.
“Copy” your choice.
Open a new Excel page.
Within the spreadsheet, right click in the “A1” cell and choose “Paste” from the option listing or choose the “Paste” option in the Tool Bar.
The data is now in a spreadsheet format and can be manipulated using the Excel application tools. 2 3 4 5 25

26. Save a Time-Lapse Sequence to Power Point
Select the time-lapse sequence you wish to save from Camera Loops.
Find the earliest hourly image you wish to save and click on “Export”. The image will appear in a pop-up box. “Copy” and “Paste” this image to a blank PowerPoint slide as directed in the pop-up window.
Advance the image one hour using the slider beneath the camera image. “Copy” and “Paste” the new image onto the same slide. This will paste images one on top of the other on a single slide.
Continue step 3 until all hourly images you wish to use have been copied and pasted.
Under “Slide Show - Custom Animation” set each image to automatically appear. Save file..
Save a Time-Lapse Sequence to Power Point 1 2 3 5
2,3,4 5 26

27. Students, Teachers, Parents, and the Entire Community View WeatherBug Weather Information Through Many Available Options

28. Please contact us with any questions, comments, or concerns:
You are now ready to get your students involved in all the real-world activities
WeatherBug Achieve provides
across the curriculum!
Please contact us with any questions, comments, or concerns:
The Team
, ext. 4302 or 28