At present, the majority of undergraduate introductory science courses are dominated by fact-driven transmissionist instructional models where students passively receive information imparted through the instructors' lectures, watching videos in class, and reading textbooks. There is considerable evidence that this model is not working very well.
Advances in computing and communication technologies are providing new opportunities for developing advanced learning environments in a contructivist setting. Conceptual change, one form of constructivism, is particularly concerned with understanding concepts that are scientifically accurate through enquiry and exploration. The World Wide Web provides an ideal vehicle for the development of resources to engage students in the exploration of weather phenomena in a constructivist setting which can address misconceptions students often bring with them based on previous learning. For instance, conceptual learning can be advanced through improved schematic representations of features associated with complex atmospheric phenomena such as thunderstorms and hurricanes. This, for example, can be accomplished in a web-based virtual-reality learning environment (VRLE) where students can interact with three-dimensional visualizations and streaming videos that are inter-linked and hyperlinked to relevant multimedia educational modules on the subject matter. The student can interactively explore this information as they seek conceptual understanding and pursue problem solving. Java and virtual reality modeling language (VRML) will be used to bring interactive control for exploration. The VRLE will include high-end visualizations and schematics that depict the three dimensional character of atmospheric phenomena being explored. The interactive VRML controls will enable a student to "walk," "fly," or "hover" through a scene. A student, for example, can explore the structure and evolution of a thunderstorm from all angles and distances, or can choose a trajectory to follow.
Such an interactive, visually dynamic environment goes far beyond 2-D textbook schematics that are static and often have limited success in capturing the three dimensional spatial and time evolution that are characteristic of atmospheric phenomena. The prototype environment we are building can be integrated with other educational and web-based resources within undergraduate introductory level courses and labs