The federal government will spend one-point-four million dollars to develop a weather education and research station at the University of Northern Iowa. It’ll be called STORM, for Science Center for Teaching, Outreach and Research on Meteorology. Officials say they will NOT focus on training new meteorologists there.Alan Czarnetzki is a U-N-I meteorology professor. As the STORM name indicates the new facility will have a three-fold goal, focusing on teaching, outreach and research. He says one example of who will be trained in workshops is school administrators. He says they will learn how to deal with forecasts of snow.Czarnetzki says the center will also work to develop courses for kids in grades K-through-nine so they’ll better understand the weather. He says since Iowa is such a farm-based state, the new STORM will also try to appeal to people involved in agriculture.Now that the funding has been approved, Czarnetzki says renovation of existing building space at U-N-I will get underway very soon. He hopes the weather education programs and workshops can begin early in 2001.
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