We report on the integration of 'Weather in a tank' rotating fluid laboratory experiments with theory and data into undergraduate and graduate courses at UMass Dartmouth and five partner universities in Spring and Fall 2007. These include a general education course in Meteorology, a junior Physics Laboratory course and a fluid dynamics graduate course at UMass Dartmouth, a graduate-level geophysical fluid dynamics course at Penn State University, senior-level climate dynamics, forecasting practicum, and synoptic meteorology courses at Millersville University, and undergraduate weather and climate laboratory courses at MIT. More details can be found here: http://paoc.mit.edu/labguide/assess_courses.html

At UMass Dartmouth, the physics majors are required to do a lab course. Four experiments, based on dye stirring, fronts, Ekman circulation, Hadley circulation and baroclinic eddies were implemented as lab components of this course. The portability and ease of use allows the tank system to be integrated in class with very brief preparation. The classroom demonstrations were followed up by students as part of the lab. The students quantified their observations whenever possible. Concurrent web-based investigations of synoptic and climatological data on thermal wind, geostrophic flow, fronts and Ekman layers connected the phenomenon being observed in the weather tank with the atmosphere. The students designed their own extensions to the experiments, and wrote a comprehensive report at the end of the semester on one of the experiments. The implementation in the graduate class at UMass allows a deeper connection with the theory and data. At Penn State similar demonstrations were practiced first with the instructor in small groups, and then demonstrated and explained by the students to the class including the theory behind the experiment. The graduate students also included observed and/or model simulated examples, and quantified their experiments whenever possible to compare with the theory. Similar demonstrations, plus convection in a 2-D tank, were conducted by meteorology majors at Millersville. Demonstrations are planned for the general education meteorology courses at all partner institutions for the Fall 2007 semester.

The experiments were used at UMass Dartmouth for a variety of outreach activities including high school student visits to campus and public lectures.

This implementation also shows the need for making even stronger connection of the experiments with the synoptic and climatological data. Despite the variety in background, class size, and level of the students, the instructors noted similarities in enhanced student learning of theoretical concepts, confirmed by formal assessment using pre/post tests.

The students were challenged at various institutions to come up with extensions or new ideas to demonstrate the concepts they had learned in consultation with the instructors. Two students from UMass Dartmouth used computer cooling fans to demonstrate the Ekman driven divergence and resulting cyclonic flow. This idea has been further extended by partnership with MIT to demonstrate wind-driven western boundary current and Sverdrup return flow on a beta-plane. A student at Millersville pursued non-rotating 2-D convection, while two students at NYU pursued demonstration of abyssal flow on a beta plane with a source/sink combination. These new demonstrations will be added to the suite of experiments that can be performed for education and outreach using the portable rotating fluid tank.