CROWN POINT | Kids really warm up to Amy Freeze.

Students applauded and shouted, "Hey, Amy!," as the chief meteorologist for Fox News Chicago took the stage Friday to speak to sixth-graders at Crown Point's Wheeler Middle School.

And yes, she said Freeze -- the perfect name for a weather woman -- really is her last name.

"People think I made it up," she told the students.

A native of Jeffersonville in far southern Indiana, Freeze became a television meteorologist by chance when asked to fill in for the regular weatherman on a Portland, Ore., station where she was working. She's been doing weather ever since.

Her talk and slide show presentation touched on weather topics, including pressure systems, tornadoes, thunderstorms and how Fox uses Doppler radar to warn of severe storms.

Students also got some inside tips on television production, such as the way weather maps are electronically projected on the television screen and the use of teleprompters by news anchors.

Science teacher Amy Helmuth said it wasn't difficult to get Freeze to come to the school.

"I had heard she speaks to school groups, so I e-mailed her," Helmuth said. "And she got right back to me. The kids are really excited."

While Freeze's presentation was directed at students, she said she has another motive.

"I come really for the teachers," Freeze said.

She said she hopes it sparks ideas that teachers can use in their classrooms.