Fundamentals of Tropical Forecasting for Educators

Catalog description

Applying atmospheric principles to the tropics, with an emphasis on the development, structure, prediction, and destructive impact of hurricanes. METEO 802 Fundamentals of Tropical Forecasting for Educators (3) Worldwide, approximately 80 tropical cyclones develop each year. This global annual average of tropical cyclones is small in comparison to the thousands of low-pressure systems that routinely parade across the middle latitudes each year. Yet tropical storms and hurricanes garner far greater attention from meteorologists and the media. The obvious reason for this lopsided focus is that tropical cyclones can inflict great devastation to life and property. To ensure that students develop the knowledge and skills required to critically assess weather forecasts issues by the National Hurricane Center, METEO 802 provides, like METEO 801 , an apprentice-training environment. Under the tutelage of professional weather forecasters, students, in their role as apprentices, work toward the goal of creating their own tropical-weather forecasts. In the process, students in METEO 802 learn about the pitfalls of forecasting the tracks and intensities of tropical storms and hurricanes as they actively work with output from sophisticated numerical models available on the Internet. Moreover, successful students apply their knowledge of the fundamental concepts of atmospheric science in order to competently evaluate forecasts issues by the National Hurricane Center in Miami and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Honolulu. Students also gain a broad perspective of the general weather and oceanic patterns in the tropics. For example, students learn about El Nino and La Nina. In the process, they discover the El Nino and La Nina are not to blame for every unusual weather even that occurs anywhere in the world. To facilitate the learning objectives, METEO 802 includes the use of digital video, audio, simulation models, virtual field trips to on-line resources for weather data, text, and interactive quizzes that provide timely feedback. The course will provide unprecedented access to one of the world's most distinguished meteorology programs. METEO 802 students will be granted licenses to use the courseware developed for this course in their own secondary classrooms. One of the primary objectives of METEO 802 is to give secondary science teachers a working knowledge of hurricanes and tropical storms so that they can become critical weather consumers and to be able to effectively convey their knowledge to their students as part of an Earth science curriculum. Students will be required to complete weekly assignments. There are 12 lessons in METEO 802 . Each lesson contains interactive exercises, links, animations, movies, and novel explanations of the basic scientific principles of how the atmosphere works. To demonstrate their mastery of the learning objectives, students complete automated online quizzes actively engage in online discussion groups focusing on real-time weather, and publish, to a person "e-portfolio," three comprehensive projects that explore timely case studies related to weather forecasting. The e-portfolio takes the form of a Web site. In addition to posting their work to their e-portfolio, students also use the space to reflect on their learning. By using their Penn State personal Web space to host their e-portfolios, students are able to share their work not only with program faculty and students, but also with external audiences, including potential employers.