Understanding Weather Forecasting for Educators

Catalog description

Fundamental principles of synoptic and physical meteorology, remote sensing and data analysis in the setting of mid-latitude weather forecasting. METEO 801 Understanding Weather Forecasting for Educators (3) Never before has the quantity of available weather information so far exceeded the quality of the public's understanding of atmospheric science. METEO 801 aims to help correct this imbalance by helping secondary teachers to develop the knowledge and skills they need to become critical consumers of weather information and to, in turn, help their own students to do the same. Students who successfully complete METEO 801 will be able to apply knowledge of fundamental concepts of atmospheric science to discriminate between reliable and unreliable weather forecasts, to explain what makes one forecast better than another, and to teach these same concepts and applications to secondary school students. To ensure that students develop the knowledge and skills required to critically assess public weather forecasts, METEO 801 will provide an apprentice-training environment that will encourage students to learn forecast mid-latitude weather themselves. They will discover that weather forecasting involves sophisticated data analysis techniques, a thorough understanding of atmospheric science, and strong verbal and graphic communication skills. METEO 801 will combine digital video, audio, simulation models, virtual field trips to on-line weather data resources, text, and interactive quizzes that provide instantaneous feedback. The course will provide unprecedented access to one of the world's most distinguished meteorology programs. METEO 801 students will be granted licenses to use the courseware developed for this course in their own secondary classrooms. The overarching goal of the course is to help secondary science teachers become informed, critical consumers of the weather information they rely upon every day 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 801 . Each lesson contains interactive exercises, links, animations, movies, and novel explanations of the basic scientific principles of how the atmosphere works. At the end of each Lesson, students will take an open-book "Promotion Quiz" that allows them to improve their status as an apprentice forecaster. In addition to Promotion Quizzes and weekly assignments on the course discussion board, students will be assigned four projects throughout the semester. Projects are also open book but require you to apply the principles students have learned to past case studies of storms and specific weather patterns.