Student Evaluations of the Oklahoma Weather Center REU program: 1995, 1998, and 1999

The Oklahoma Weather Center (OWC) is a group of federal, state, and university organizations housed in Norman, Oklahoma. Collectively, they focus upon atmospheric science education and research. The OWC is comprised of the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms, the National Severe Storms Laboratory, the OU School of Meteorology, the Storm Prediction Center, the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, the OU College of Geosciences, the National Weather Service Forecast Office at Norman, the OU Department of Geography, the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, the OU Center for Computational Geosciences, and the WSR-88D Operational Support Facility. During the decade of the 1990s, the Oklahoma Weather Center hosted five Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs. REU programs are funded by the National Science Foundation and are primarily designed to introduce junior level students to the process of scientific research. Each year, the OWC REU administers a pre- and post-program questionnaire to the students as a method of evaluating the program. Over the past three years, the Oklahoma Weather Center has collected evaluation data on 34 students. Student responses found on these evaluations have been valuable in the overall evolution of the program. This paper is a summary of that data.