84th AMS Annual Meeting

Sunday, 11 January 2004
TEACHING ONLINE WEATHER STUDIES IN PUERTO RICO
Hall 4AB
Robin George Williams, University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, Mayaguez, PR
At the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez I have taught the Online Weather Studies course for two semesters, first to six students, then to nine students. The student population is overwhelmingly Puerto Rican with some South and Central Americans. In the student body females slightly outnumber males. The first language is Spanish but I teach in English. This sometimes causes problems in understanding the material. The course is classified as upper division so there is a mix of juniors, seniors and first-year graduates students, mostly engineering majors, in the class. The course is the first in a series of electives students take to prepare them for a possible career with the National Weather Service. The program of electives satisfies the US Government’s GS-1340 requirements. This program is sponsored by NOAA and has the goal of establishing a meteorology department at the University of Puerto Rico by 2007. This department will grant both undergraduate and graduate degrees.

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