The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation has developed exemplar weather and climate-related laboratory materials using leading-edge multimedia techniques and technology. UCAR's Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET®) has a history of developing multimedia learning products for operational forecasters and is therefore in a unique position to integrate these materials into the undergraduate classroom. Our initial effort is a pilot laboratory module on satellite meteorology aimed at students enrolled in survey weather and climate courses, most of whom are non-science majors.
The lab module will be an interactive, Web-based complement to the more popular meteorology survey textbooks. Satellite meteorology is used to explore surface and atmospheric phenomena, with hurricane systems providing focus to the investigation. The cornerstone for the module is an interactive matrix, which supports learner inquiry, with rich multimedia case study data and simulations to provide meteorological content. Module testing is currently taking place at several colleges and universities, and it will be generally available to the educational community by the summer of 1999