The Garden School Amateur Radio Club in Jackson Heights, New York, K2GSG, was started in September 2016 as a way to implement the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) standard at the school.

Currently, the Club has 13 members ranging from 4th graders to 12th graders and is an Affiliated Club of ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®.

Well, last week they got a big surprise...they were on television...in Chicago!! CBS News in Chicago aired a short feature that showed the students using amateur radio to make contacts and then transmitting weather reports on the air to a SKYWARN training net!

You can watch the video at www.cbsnews.com/chicago/video/students-learn-how-use-ham-radio.

Their reaction to seeing the video, “They loved it!” said their teacher, John Hale, KD2LPM.

Hale said students are learning more than just how to push buttons...they are learning how to talk on and off the air! One student said he really did not know how to speak correctly but amateur radio was helping him improve his speaking, reading the station IDs and reading those weather reports. The group may participate in ARRL Field Day later this year.

Hale has been selected for the ARRL Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology (TI) for an upcoming session on Long Island this summer. TI is a donor-funded professional development program designed to help classroom teachers elevate their STEM programs through the use of wireless technology.

Garden School was founded in 1923 to meet the need for a high-quality, independent school in Queens.