Online Weather Studies: National Dissemination and Collegial Professional Development Activity With Undergraduate Faculty in Minority-Serving Institutions

American Meteorological Society, Boston MA

Investigators

Abstract

Atmospheric Sciences (41) The American Meteorological Society (AMS) in cooperation with the US National Weather Service and the Department of the Geosciences of North Carolina's Elizabeth City State University is providing professional development opportunities for 100 faculty at minority institutions with the goal of increasing minority student participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Over a 4.5-year period, this project will attain this diversity-enhancing goal by making available to minority-serving colleges and universities Online Weather Studies, an existing AMS-developed distance- learning course on the basics of atmospheric science partially delivered via the Internet. Greater minority student participation in STEM requires greater access to scientific learning experiences that engage student interest and develop their critical thinking skills. Critical thinking and associated reasoning skills are considered essential for student success in STEM. Online Weather Studies is designed to meet this goal through electronic delivery of highly motivational investigations written to current weather conditions. To facilitate adoption and implementation of Online Weather Studies, the project provides professional development experiences for faculty (25 per year for 4 years) via a 5-day summer workshop at the National Weather Service Training Center (NWSTC) at Kansas City, MO plus a series of two-day workshops treating science content, pedagogical, and diversity issues as a regular feature of the AMS Annual Meeting held each January.