Panoply visitors voted Claudia Chu’s poster as best in show. Chu is an eighth-grader in Jane Caudle’s physical science class at Discovery Middle School. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Claudia Chu, an eighth-grader at Discovery Middle School, won top place in the seventh annual Tennessee Valley Severe Weather Poster Contest.

Chu’s win was followed closely by classmates Cassie Rehage and Lakyn Shepard in the grade 5-8 category. Visitors to the National Weather Service’s booth at Panoply Arts Festival voted on their favorite posters.

Chu’s four-section poster represented each season’s extreme weather. For winter, a car was stranded in a snowstorm. For spring, a tornado cut a path of destruction across a plain. A hurricane represented fall, and a city pounded by thunderstorms and lightning depicted summer weather. At the intersection of the images, the 2013 theme appeared: “Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall: In 2013 Be Prepared for Them All.”

Chu, Rehage and Shepard are students in Jane Caudle’s physical science class. “We had been studying a unit on the forces of nature in hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and volcanoes, and (the posters) were a classroom assignment,” Caudle said. “I use cross curriculum activities throughout the year.”

“Cross-curricular learning is something we’ve been focused on at Discovery, as well as in our other Madison City Schools,” instructional partner Jacquelyn Flowers said. “We want the learning for students to be horizontal so that they understand how their learning in one area relates to their learning in another area, including their elective classes.”

Being well rounded is important for students, Flowers said. They should “put their learning to use in other areas of their lives while building connections between and within different content areas. Cross-curricular learning supports us in ensuring our students are college and career ready before they leave Madison City Schools.”

The student chapter of the American Meteorological Society at the University of Alabama in Huntsville sponsored the contest. Chapter president Matt Saari was appreciative of Discovery’s support for the contest and weather preparedness.

Chu will receive a NOAA weather radio, tickets to Sci-Quest Hands-on Science Center, Chick-fil-A sandwiches and Rocket City Weather Fest items. Rehage and Shepard also received prizes.