Using Multimedia to Teach Climate Science Concepts to Undergraduate Students

Technological advances provide new ways of teaching climate concepts that are often difficult for students to understand. This study introduces students to an alternative method of learning climate concepts by watching multimedia video lessons. The University of Northern Colorado undergraduate students in introductory meteorology courses will participate in this study. The Multimedia video lessons are about Earth's energy budget and an introduction to feedback mechanisms. Development of the multimedia video lessons are based off current research regarding cognitive science and instructional design in the field of multimedia design. The participants are randomly assigned into two groups; one group receiving printed scripts of the multimedia lessons, the other group watching the multimedia video lessons online. These lessons will be short, segmented, and student-controlled. Various data collection techniques; pre- and post-testing, short answer responses, and focus group interviews, will be used to assess students learning following implementation. The findings of this study will lead to developing materials to enhance climate science education.