The Fundamentals in Meteorology Inventory: Results from the Development of a New Meteorology Education Tool

The Fundamentals in Meteorology Inventory (FMI) is a multiple-choice assessment exam designed to identify the common misconceptions of fundamental topics covered in introductory meteorology courses. The exam has been in development since 2013 and has undergone testing over the last 4 years at a small group of universities. During this time the exam has undergone several revisions based on feedback from faculty at the participating institutions and statistical analysis of the exam results. Results show that the exam is converging toward a reliable, effective concept inventory; however, the small sample size has precluded statistical validation of the exam. To address this, during the Fall 2017 semester, several institutions were recruited to participate in an effort to statistically validate the FMI as useful tool in measuring meteorology misconceptions. Participating schools represent a wide range in terms of geographical region, size, and student demographics. Students enrolled in introductory meteorology courses are given the FMI as a pre- and post-test assessment before instruction begins and after instruction is complete. Student performance on the FMI will be quantified using a variety of statistical measures, including learning gains. Statistical measures of exam validity will also be presented, including discrimination index, difficulty index, and point biserial coefficient. Comparisons among varying institution types, majors versus non-majors, and geographic regions will be shown.