EarthStorm U: Encouraging the use of Oklahoma Mesonet and ARM Data in Undergraduate Education and Non-Science Major Courses

Education faculty from the University of Tulsa, Tulsa Community College, and Southeastern Oklahoma State University attended a two-week professional development workshop in Norman, OK on July 13-24, 1998. Funded by the Oklahoma EPSCoR Project and hosted by the Oklahoma Climatological Survey (OCS), the structure of the workshop was based on the successful outreach program for K-12 teachers called EARTHSTORM, conducted by OCS during 1992-1994. The goal of the workshop was to have faculty make education majors aware of the Mesonet and its uses by incorporating Mesonet in undergraduate education classes.

The workshop included basic meteorological principles, Mesonet research, OCS web pages and software, and tours of the Mesonet facilities. Topics covered included atmospheric composition, the water cycle, heat transfer, air masses, cloud types, weather forecasting, atmospheric winds, severe weather, and the climatology of Oklahoma. These concepts were studied further using data from the Oklahoma Mesonet. Short presentations by guest speakers demonstrated how to use Mesonet data in a research environment, including topics as varied as soil moisture and airborne allergens.

The participants from the University of Tulsa are working together to design a meteorology class for non-science majors to be offered in the fall of 1999. The course will include hands-on physical science activities, lecture material, use of Mesonet data via web pages, and a research project. The research project will require the students to collect their own data (i.e., amounts of ozone pollution or airborne allergens in the Tulsa area), use software to analyze the data, and prepare a research paper to communicate their results and conclusions.

In, addition the OCS is planning to hold a second ESU workshop for other faculty members in August of 1999. Ideally, faculty at every Oklahoma college and university will be using Oklahoma Mesonet data in their undergraduate classes.