Recorded presentation3.1
Integrating LEAD Research in Education
Sepideh Yalda, Millersville Univ., Millersville, PA; and E. N. Wiziecki, R. D. Clark, E. C. Meyers, H. Gadde, T. Daley, R. Junod, S. States, S. Cecelski, and J. Kurdzo
Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery (LEAD) is making meteorological data, forecast models, and analysis and visualization tools available to anyone who wants to interactively explore the weather as it evolves. The LEAD education and outreach initiative is aimed at bringing new capabilities into classroom from the middle school level to graduate education and beyond. One of the principal goals of LEAD is to democratize the availability of advanced weather technologies for research and education. The degree of democratization is tied to the growth of student knowledge and skills, and is correlated with education level. This is necessary to accommodate not only differences in knowledge and skills, but to assure that the “teachable moment” is not lost. Undergraduates will have the opportunity to query observational data and model output, explore and discover relationships through concept mapping using an ontology service, select domains of interest based on current weather, and employ an experiment builder within the LEAD portal as an interface to configure, launch the WRF model, monitor the workflow, and visualize results using Unidata's Integrated Data Viewer (IDV). Such a robust and comprehensive suite of tools and services can create new paradigms for embedding students in an authentic, contextualized environment where the knowledge domain is an extension, yet integral supplement, to the classroom experience. The presentation will provide an overview of the efforts at Millersville University including the development of the LEAD-to-LEARN modules and the integration of the LEAD portal into the educational materials, and the collaborative efforts between LEAD Education and Outreach thrust and National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) Cybereducation group. The collaborative work has four main areas of focus: 1) review, analysis, and accessibility of LEAD-to-LEARN modules initially developed by undergraduates at Millersville; 2) development of a basic version of the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) for pre-college use (IDV Basic); 3) design and compilation of a menu-driven module for pre-college use (ncAnnilihate); 4) use-cases for integrating LEAD technology into undergraduate subject material. The use-cases (4) are embedded in learning modules (LEAD-to-LEARN) designed to have students explore a particular weather phenomenon (e.g., a frontal boundary, jet streak, or lake effect snow event) through self-guided inquiry, and are intended as a supplement to classroom instruction. IDV Basic and ncAnnihilate are modifications to Unidata's IDV created by NCSA Cybereducation group to facilitate the integration of IDV in the classroom. Recorded presentation
Session 3, Technology and Teaching Tools in the University Classroom
Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 8:30 AM-9:45 AM, 209
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