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Just ask a student in Leslie Long’s eighth-grade accelerated science class at Eppler Junior High School.

Long’s students are participating in the International Weather Project, a worldwide experiment to study the effects of global warming. Eppler, which Long said is the only school in the United States to take part in the project, then communicates with schools in China, Japan and the United Kingdom to study weather conditions around the world and compare them to past weather conditions.

“We have dates in common where students in Japan, China and the United Kingdom take their measurements and then we share them together, measuring things like temperature, humidity and other factors,” Long said. “They’re doing the same thing in all the other regions and so we can get a comprehensive look at how the weather is across the world and how patterns may have changed.”

Students have gone out several times over the year and measured the weather themselves, taking readings of the various different factors throughout the area. Sharing the information with students on the other side of the globe, however, is not as simple as entering numbers into a Web site.

“We do have a pre-set page where they can go online and enter their data. But because in all the other countries they use Celsius and we use Fahrenheit, they’ve had to do a lot of converting,” Long said. “The students like it because they don’t always know what’s going on in other places in the world and this gives them a chance to learn about cultures in other countries and communicate with students who are their same age and just like them, only living in another land. I think that’s what keeps it interesting.”

The project involves more than just simple measurements. Recently, the class was awarded a $2,000 grant by WeatherBug to install a monitoring station in the school that would take readings for the students. The class had to scout out locations throughout Eppler where they would be able to place the device in order to get an accurate reading.

“It’s a lot of problem-solving,” said Long. “It needs to be in an optimal area, free from any obstructions or interference. I keep telling them to think outside of the box. We’ve never actually had an accurate, to-the-minute reading of everything right from our location, so this is going to be a big benefit.”

Students said they’ve enjoyed the project because of the cultural interaction and the unique approach to science.

“It’s been pretty cool so far. It’s been really fun, but sometimes it’s a lot of work,” said student Tyler Klebba. “We found out that carbon monoxide contributes to one of the main causes of global warming.”

Austin Cleys, also one of Long’s students, said he has enjoyed the opportunity to meet new students, even if they are on the other side of the world.

“I think talking with other people around the world has been cool,” he said. “You learn a lot about them and what they’re like.”

The project, which began in the fall, will pick up steam as the end of the school year approaches, Long said. With global warming at the forefront of current political issues, Long said the class enjoys learning about the changes occurring in their environment, which could impact them as they grow older.

“This class is very self-motivated,” Long said. “I don’t even think of them as eighth-graders. They’re thinking and working on a much higher level.”