The University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP) was created in 1887 as a school for Native Americans and continues to graduate the most Native American students east of the Mississippi River.

An introductory Weather and Climate course has recently been added to the UNCP General Education curriculum, and as a result, a large number of Native American and other minority students now have an opportunity for exposure to a field formerly unfamiliar to then. Several UNCP graduates will go on to be public school teachers in our local area, which is significantly Native American in population. Online Weather Studies (OWS) is regarded as a wonderful opportunity to entice greater numbers of minority students into science course work, and perhaps as a major field of study.

The course was offered during Fall semester 2003, primarily as a way of meeting the unique needs of UNCP's distance learning students. Although the Geography 246 "Weather and Climate" course is taught every semester, Fall Semester 2003 was the first time the course was taught completely online. This presentation will illustrate some of the advantages and disadvantages to offering OWS entirely over the Internet. Student demographics, success stories, problems and prospects will be discussed.