Ken Dewey, professor and SNR outreach coordinator, has been appointed to the American Meteorological Society board on outreach and pre-college education.
“It is an honor to be selected to serve on this national board and to help guide their pre-college and public outreach educational programs in the atmospheric sciences,” Dewey said.
Dewey’s appointment on the board is set to begin following the close of the AMS annual meeting, to be held Feb. 2-6. His appointment extends for three years and will last through the 2017 annual meeting.
“This is an exciting opportunity to work to advance meteorology/climatology outreach education – and also to subtly promote our programs within SNR – at a national level,” he said.
Dewey’s efforts to create a national network of middle and high school weather camps, his annual “Weatherfest” event that draws as many as 3,000 participants and his “Weather in the Classroom” K-12 workshops are outreach accomplishments that helped position Dewey for the AMS board appointment.
Following Dewey’s “Weather in the Classroom” workshop at the Nebraska Association of Teachers of Science annual meeting in September, Jon Pedersen, associate dean for research in the College of Education and Human Sciences, said that participants enjoyed learning from Dewey.
“Everything that I heard from the participants was absolutely positive and out of the park,” Pedersen said. “They so enjoyed the activities and were excited about what (Dewey) presented.”
Dewey said that positive feedback motivates him to continue developing and expanding upon his outreach work.
“It’s comments like these and the encouragement that I get in the School of Natural Resources that keeps my passion burning for outreach science education,” Dewey said. “I am even more excited now that I will be working at a national level to enhance outreach education in atmospheric and climate sciences across the nation.”
Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership of more than 14,000 professionals, professors, students and weather enthusiasts.
