Creating a K-12 Weather Ready Nation-Styled Curriculum

In the Fall Semester at the University of South Alabama, the authors offered an experimental course open to both undergraduate and graduate students on developing a Weather Ready Nation-style curriculum aimed at the K-12 education system in the Mobile, Alabama metro area. The class was a mix of master's level education majors and undergraduate meteorology majors. The premise of the course was to test the feasibility of developing and delivering a curriculum that not only lays a foundation of basic weather and climate science concepts, but also includes information about hazards and how to make well-informed decisions in threatening weather situations. The course began by introducing the class to basic weather and climate principles that are required by the 2023 Alabama State Science Standards. It then described the climate of the north central Gulf Coast region and identified the types of weather hazards specific to the area, describing the types of products available from both public- and private-sector sources that inform users of the dangers. The course culminated by introducing the students to various actions that, from a public safety perspective, are the best options for staying safe in threatening weather situations. These topics, including the study of climate and its variations, were approached from an educator's perspective, assuming little to no prior knowledge of meteorology and climatology. The final project, done in teams, was to develop a set of effective curriculum materials that are both interesting and informative in a K-12 classroom environment. At the time of this writing, the authors hope to bring in guest speakers from the local National Weather Service Forecast Office, the USA College of Education, and the Mobile County Emergency Management Agency to provide subject matter expertise in areas such as weather hazards, products, educational protocols, and risk decision-making and responses. We hope to provide an overview of the results of this experimental class, including examples of the curricula developed by the students in their final projects.