Press Releases
Gonzales High School Students Collaborate on Project with NOAA
Gonzales, California – On Wednesday, March 21st students from King City, Greenfield, Soledad and Gonzales schools will participate in a Science Maker Faire at Soledad High School from 3:30pm-5:30pm. The Science Maker Faire is a celebration of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness focused on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics).
A group of 12 Gonzales High School students from the Wings of Knowledge (WOK) program will be participating in the Science Maker Faire, presenting a project developed in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
On a broader scale, all the participating WOK students currently have an ongoing agricultural technology project with local growers. For this project students designed and manufactured a prototype system capable of measuring soil moisture, capturing the data into cloud-based storage, and providing actionable insights through software-based analysis and a mobile app. For the NOAA project, students will be adding additional sensors and software capabilities that allow the existing system to gather weather-related data that could help NOAA enhance the accuracy of its weather forecasts in South Monterey County. The effort is led by three student research teams: a climatology team, a hardware engineering team, and a software development team. The teams hope to present a prototype of the new system at the Science Maker Faire.
Currently NOAA has limited access to reliable on-the-ground weather data in between Salinas and Bradley and it relies on satellite information, which can make forecasting the weather challenging. If successful, the data from the WOK equipment could be valuable to NOAA. After the Science Maker Faire the student research teams plan to strategically deploy the pilot systems, in collaboration with a few growers, to determine if the data collected is of value to NOAA and to the growers.
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About Wings of Knowledge
Wings of Knowledge (WOK) is participatory action-research initiative guided by the non-profit Olinga Learning. Olinga Learning is dedicated to empowering youth to improve their rural communities.
The initiative emerged over the course of years from grassroots service learning programs in Gonzales, Chualar, and Watsonville. Its core focus is the application of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) within a broader context of community building.
In 2016 Olinga Learning engaged in a partnership agreement with the Gonzales Unified School District and the City of Gonzales and formal collaboration and integration of this community-based initiative into the educational courses and processes began. Currently, areas of action-research available to students include agriculture, engineering, earth sciences, and social enterprise. An aim of the initiative is to cultivate local science and engineering talent while also helping growers operate more efficiently and sustainably.
The WOK initiative is funded by the City of Gonzales, the Gonzales Unified School District, foundations, and individual donors.
About City of Gonzales
The city of Gonzales, California is located in Monterey County. The quaint and culturally diverse community of approximately 9,000 people is in the heart of the Salinas Valley’s agricultural and wine region. Gonzales is an established regional leader in agricultural-technology and innovation, environmental awareness and sustainable practices. Gonzales is home to companies such as HealthySoil, which manufactures products to improve agricultural crop production; Converted Organics, a natural fertilizer company; Taylor Farms, a fresh vegetable production facility, Mann Packing/Del Monte Fresh, a leading supplier of fresh cut vegetables; Ramsay Highlander, an innovator, designer and manufacturer of technologically-advanced harvesting equipment; Papé Equipment Handling, Braga Fresh, Green Valley Farm Supply, Tessemae’s, American Bioscience, Caraccioli Cellars, and Constellation Brands, an international producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits.