Mrs. Baldwin's first graders have been learning all about groundhogs in preparation for the big day Tuesday, Groundhog Day.
And after just a day or two of learning, they're now groundhog experts.
"It's where a groundhog comes out of his hole, and when he comes up, he sees his shadow or he doesn't. If he doesn't see his shadow, spring's coming. If he does see his shadow, then six more weeks of winter," explains first grader Collin Lewis.
First graders like Collin say they trust Punxsutawney Phil, the famous critter from Pennsylvania. But not everyone's in agreement.
Ray Wolf, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities says he's not sold on the idea of an animal predicting the weather.
"From a science standpoint, whether or not it affects our forecast, there's no impact," says Wolf.
But with Punxsutawney Phil predicting an early spring, the groundhog and the meteorologist have similar weather forecasts this year because of El Nino, which makes winter milder than usual.
"There's no reason to expect that trend to change through winter, so by coincidence, as much as anything, the groundhog's outlook is fairly realistic," says Wolf.
That forecast, no matter where it's coming from, it's enough to make a classroom of groundhog experts extremely excited.