RAPID: Supporting Universities with Online Educational Materials through the MetEd Website

University Corporation For Atmospheric Res, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

University faculty are faced with unprecedented challenges as they quickly transition many of their teaching activities to virtual environments. In atmospheric science, this transition requires finding ways to engage students in learning about complex scientific processes and creating ways for students to apply these concepts using numerical models and observational datasets. This project will develop an online guide to COMET’s MetEd lessons and graphics/animations so as to enable university faculty to quickly find and incorporate high-quality interactive lessons, graphics and datasets into their meteorology courses this fall. The online guide that maps current COMET lessons and graphics/animations to standard undergraduate courses in meteorology will be broadly disseminated through COMET’s freely-available MetEd website, which has over 625,000 registered users. This project will produce 1) an online guide that maps current lessons available on MetEd to standard courses in meteorology, 2) a gallery of graphics and animations bundled for standard courses in meteorology and 3) new online courses that contain the mapped MetEd lessons, with required and optional components, such that users can complete all required lessons to earn an online certificate of completion. To create the university curricula lesson mapping, COMET staff will survey course curricula and syllabi from several leading university programs in meteorology to create a “composite curriculum” that represents the typical in-major course requirements for an atmospheric science/meteorology degree. COMET will also reference the most recent American Meteorological Society Statement on Bachelor’s Degree to ensure alignment with current and future academic needs from the professional vantage point. The project will focus on seven widely taught courses in meteorology/atmospheric science degree programs; introductory meteorology, physical meteorology, dynamic meteorology, synoptic meteorology, weather analysis & forecasting, mesoscale meteorology, and remote sensing This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.