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Earth Sciences Faculty Publications Department of the Earth Sciences

1-2004

Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences ThroughNational Dissemination of the AMS OnlineWeather Studies Distance Learning CourseIra W. GeerAmerican Meteorological Society

Elizabeth W. MillsAmerican Meteorological Society

Joseph M. MoranAmerican Meteorological Society

Robert S. WeinbeckThe College at Brockport, weinbeck@dc.ametsoc.org

William A. PorterElizabeth City State University

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Citation/Publisher Attribution:Geer, I. W., Mills, E. W., Moran, J. M., Weinbeck, R. S., Porter, W. A., and Harris, J. L., 2004, Enhancing Diversity in the GeosciencesThrough National Dissemination of the AMS Online Weather Studies Distance Learning Course, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 85, 37-41.Available on publisher's site at http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-85-1-37.

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Repository CitationGeer, Ira W.; Mills, Elizabeth W.; Moran, Joseph M.; Weinbeck, Robert S.; Porter, William A.; Harris, Jasper L.; and Brey, James A.,"Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences Through National Dissemination of the AMS Online Weather Studies Distance LearningCourse" (2004). Earth Sciences Faculty Publications. 1.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/esc_facpub/1

AuthorsIra W. Geer, Elizabeth W. Mills, Joseph M. Moran, Robert S. Weinbeck, William A. Porter, Jasper L. Harris,and James A. Brey

This article is available at Digital Commons @Brockport: https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/esc_facpub/1

37JANUARY 2004AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY |

Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences throughNational Dissemination of the AMS OnlineWeather Studies Distance Learning Course

BY IRA W. GEER, ELIZABETH W. MILLS, JOSEPH M. MORAN, ROBERT S. WEINBECK,WILLIAM A. PORTER, JASPER L. HARRIS, AND JAMES A. BREY

T

AFFILIATIONS: GEER, MILLS, AND MORAN—American MeteorologicalSociety, Washington, D.C.; WEINBECK—State University of New York,College at Brockport, Brockport, New York; PORTER—Elizabeth CityState University, Elizabeth City, North Carolina; HARRIS—NorthCarolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina; BREY—University of Wisconsin—Fox Valley, Menasha, WisconsinCORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Elizabeth W. Mills, AmericanMeteorological Society, 1120 G Street NW, Suite 800, Washington,DC 20005E-mail: mills@dc.ametsoc.orgDOI: 10.1175/BAMS-85-1-37

©2004 American Meteorological Society

he American Meteorological Society (AMS) Edu-cation Program has embarked on a National Sci-ence Foundation-funded initiative aimed at in-

creasing the number of minority undergraduates whoare introduced to the atmospheric sciences. Theinitiative’s ultimate goal is to help increase diversityin the nation’s scientific workforce by encouragingminorities (traditionally underrepresented in science,mathematics, engineering, and technology) to con-sider a career in science. One-hundred faculty mem-bers from minority-serving colleges and universitieswill teach “Online Weather Studies,” a distance-learn-ing course on the basics of weather and climate de-veloped and serviced by the AMS. The course is par-tially delivered via the Internet and employs a highlymotivational approach whereby students learn aboutweather as it happens in near-real time. To facilitateimplementation of the course, participating facultymembers attend a one-week orientation workshophosted by the NWS at its training center in KansasCity, Missouri. Participating faculty join a collegialonline network to share ideas and teaching strategiesrelated to their offering of “Online Weather Studies.”

The nation faces a serious challenge in attractingmembers of racial and ethnic minority groups to sci-ence and science-related careers (including teaching).The number of minorities in the scientific workforceremains well below their overall representation in thenation’s population (Jones 2002). While the U.S. Bu-reau of the Census (2000) reports that about 27% ofthe U.S. population is African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native, or NativeHawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, these groups makeup only about 7% of the total science and engineer-ing workforce (National Science Foundation 2000b).This lack of diversity in the scientific/engineeringworkforce is directly related to the relatively low en-rollment of minorities in undergraduate and gradu-ate science and engineering majors.

Underrepresentation is especially acute in the geo-sciences, including the atmospheric sciences. The Na-tional Science Foundation (2000a) reports that mi-norities earn almost 15% of all B.S. degrees in scienceand engineering but only 4.6% of bachelor’s degreesin the geosciences. Minorities earn only 3.3% of allmaster’s degrees and 5% of all Ph.D. degrees in thegeosciences.

A formidable obstacle in attracting undergradu-ates to the geosciences, particularly at minority-serv-ing institutions, is lack of access: students have no op-portunity to enroll in introductory courses in thegeosciences because none are offered at their collegeor university. For example, the majority of thenation’s undergraduate minority-serving institutionsdo not offer an introductory meteorology course.This was confirmed by our perusal of college anduniversity home pages. Of the 112 Hispanic-servinginstitutions (HSIs) listing courses, 21% offer weathercourses. Of the 48 historically black colleges anduniversities’ (HBCUs) home pages that include

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course listings, only 12.5% offer a weather course. Ofthe 15 tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) that listcourses on their home pages, only a few offer weathercourses. Of the 13 Alaska Native and Native Hawai-ian (AN/NH)-serving institutions, three offer aweather course. Of the more than 270 institutionsidentified as HBCUs, HSIs, TCUs, and AN/NH-serv-ing institutions, only two (Jackson State Universityand University of Miami) offer an undergraduatedegree in atmospheric science (AMS/University Cor-poration for Atmospheric Research 2000).

To help increase undergraduate access to the geo-sciences, the AMS Education Program is makingavailable an introductory weather and climate course,“Online Weather Studies.” The course already hasbeen offered at more than 140 colleges and universi-ties nationwide through spring 2003, including manyminority-serving institutions. Now, thanks to Na-tional Science Foundation (NSF) funding and thecooperation of the NWS, AMS has an opportunity toexpose more undergraduates to the geosciences bybringing this course to more institutions serving largenumbers of minority students. This AMS GeosciencesDiversity/National Dissemination Project has NSFsupport over a 4.5-yr period, which began in 2001, tointroduce “Online Weather Studies” to 100 minority-serving college and universities. This program is prov-ing to be very successful, as 52 faculty members, rep-resenting 48 minority-serving institutions, havealready joined the Diversity Project. Project supportis from the NSF’s Opportunities for Enhancing Di-versity in the Geosciences (OEDG) and Course, Cur-riculum, and Laboratory Improvement—NationalDissemination (CCLI-ND) programs.

ONLINE WEATHER STUDIES. “Online WeatherStudies” is an innovative, 12- to 15-week introductorycollege-level, online course on the fundamentals of at-mospheric science (Geer et al. 2001). Current weatherdata are delivered via the Internet and coordinated withinvestigations keyed to the day’s weather. The princi-pal innovation of “Online Weather Studies” is that stu-dents analyze weather as it happens in near-real time—a highly motivational learning experience. The AMSEducation Program, with support from the NSF, de-signed and services this course. It is available to collegesand universities as a user-friendly turnkey package withelectronic and printed components.

“Online Weather Studies” can be offered by me-teorology instructors as well as by science faculty hav-ing no prior teaching experience or formal training

in the atmospheric sciences. Faculty volunteers whohave already taught the course are available to assistinstructors offering the course for the first time. Also,AMS staff meteorologists are prepared to answer ques-tions on all aspects of course delivery and content.

The course has been offered in various formatsranging from strictly online (with few or no formalclassroom meetings) to a laboratory role in a tradi-tional lecture course. AMS has developed a coursehome page, textbook, study guide, faculty manualCD, and secure instructor’s home page. The “OnlineWeather Studies” home page delivers student inves-tigations (two per week), current weather data andmaps, satellite imagery, composite radar displays, adaily weather summary, and forecasts. Meteorologi-cal data, supplied in learner-friendly formats by theCooperative Program for Operational Meteorology,Education and Training (COMET), are updatedhourly, 24 hours a day, and seven days a week, year-round. The customized full-color textbook featuresa traditional sequence of topics, and each of the 15chapters provides background information for eachweek’s investigations. (Three of the chapters are in-dependent of the course delivery schedule to accom-modate variations in academic calendars among in-stitutions.) The study guide contains the first part ofeach investigation. AMS Education staff in Washing-ton, D.C., writes the second part of each investiga-tion to current weather conditions, and that part isposted on the course home page by noon EST onMonday and Wednesday of each week. All 30 of theinvestigations provide an inquiry-based learning ex-perience. The faculty manual CD contains courseguidance material (e.g., chapter-by-chapter learningobjectives and suggestions for course implementationin a variety of settings), test bank questions and an-swers, and textbook images. The secure faculty homepage provides chapter discussions, answer keys tocurrent and archived online portions of investiga-tions, and strategies that address diversity issues andcritical thinking.

When an institution licenses “Online WeatherStudies,” the course instructor receives one copy ofthe textbook, study guide, and faculty manual CD, aswell as information for access to course and facultyhome pages. The students purchase the textbook andstudy guide through their institution’s bookstore asthey would for any other course, and the instructorshares the course home page information. The AMSprovides course instructors with updated materials asthey become available.

39JANUARY 2004AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY |

AMS GEOSCIENCES DIVERSITY/NATIONALDISSEMINATION PROJECT. The new NSFfunding is helping minority-serving institutionsimplement “Online Weather Studies.” Eligible col-leges and universities include those listed by the U.S.Department of Education as historically black collegesand universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, tribalcolleges and universities, or Alaska Native or NativeHawaiian-serving institutions. Also eligible are otheraccredited postsecondary institutions that can docu-ment a minority enrollment of at least 30% of theirtotal student population. Minority students are de-fined as members of African American, HispanicAmerican, American Indian, Alaskan Native, NativeHawaiian, and Native Pacific Islander groups. Over a4.5-yr period, 100 minority-serving institutions areexpected to participate in the program.

The AMS Diversity Project encourages and facilitatesparticipation in “Online Weather Studies.” Prior to aninstructor’s initial offering of the course, he or she isinvited to attend a workshop at the NWS Training Cen-ter (NWSTC) in Kansas City, Missouri. Participantsbecome part of a virtual community where they canshare ideas and teaching strategies related to the course.Also, a mentoring program allows students to networkwith professional meteorologists and makes them awareof opportunities for internships, summer research, andcareer counseling. Meteorologists-in-charge (MICs) atNWS Weather Forecast Offices across the nation havevolunteered their time to help make these opportuni-ties possible. Also, participants are invited to the edu-cational symposium of the AMS Annual Meeting,where they attend a special diversity session and areencouraged to present a paper or poster.

NWSTC FACULTY WORKSHOP. The work-shop at the NWSTC explores the latest operationaltechnologies for sensing, analyzing, and forecastingweather; examines teaching strategies that promotecritical thinking through technology; and reviews anarray of classroom and laboratory applications. Thisintensive one-week workshop includes lectures, tu-torials, hands-on laboratory exercises, and field trips.NWS and other NOAA scientists and experiencedweather educators explore a variety of meteorologi-cal concepts and the challenges and rewards of teach-ing weather at least partially online.

Participants are provided with all necessary coursematerials to teach “Online Weather Studies.” Theydevelop their ability to interpret and analyze weatherinformation acquired through direct and remote

sensing of the Earth–atmosphere system, and exam-ine the properties and life cycle of weather systems,with emphasis on systems responsible for hazardousconditions. They also collaborate on the design ofstudent investigations.

The 22 participants at the inaugural NWSTCworkshop in May 2002 and the 25 participants at theMay 2003 workshop represent a variety of 2- and 4-year minority-serving colleges and universities fromaround the United States and its territories. Eighteenteach at historically black colleges and universities,11 are faculty members at Hispanic-serving institu-tions, 3 repre-sent tribal col-leges, 14 arefrom institu-tions where mi-nority studentsare a substan-tial part of thetotal studentp o p u l a t i o n ,and 1 is in-volved in anN S F - f u n d e dprogram to in-troduce the geosciences to Native American students.Participants represent a broad range of scientific dis-ciplines, including geography (10), meteorology (8),geology (6), physics (6), chemistry (3), environmen-tal science (3), science education (3), biology (2), as-tronomy (1), biochemistry (1), computer science (1),earth science (1), plant ecology (1), and soil physics(1). Only about one-third had previously taught ameteorology course. Five other professors are partici-pating in this program but have yet to attend theNWSTC workshop.

Featured speakers at the two workshops covereda variety of meteorological topics. Max Mayfield, di-rector of the Tropical Prediction Center/NationalHurricane Center, discussed the properties and evo-lution of tropical cyclones. Elizabeth Quoetone, ofthe WSR-88D Radar Operations Center, describedthe capabilities of weather radar. Roderick A.Scofield, of the National Environmental Satellite,Data, and Information Service, reviewed various sat-ellite products and demonstrated how remote sens-ing is improving forecasting. Louis W. Uccellini, di-rector of NCEP, updated advances in numericalweather prediction. Joseph T. Schaefer, director ofthe Storm Prediction Center (SPC), covered the ser-

FIG. 1. Faculty participants learnabout the NWS ASOS.

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vices provided by the SPC. At the initial workshop,John E. Jones Jr., deputy director of the NWS, out-lined the structure and operations of the NWS andpresented an overview ofNWS diversity initiatives.Percy W. Thomas, trainingdivision chief of the NWSOffice of Climate, Water,and Weather Services, high-lighted the importance edu-cation plays in saving lives aswell as promoting diversityin the scientific workforce.

William Porter, professorat Elizabeth City State Uni-versity, described how“Online Weather Studies”promotes critical thinking.Participants worked collab-oratively through a numberof investigations incorporat-ing, for example, upper-airanalysis, the Coriolis effect,El Niño and La Niña, andweather map interpretation.Finally, Jasper Harris, pro-fessor at North CarolinaCentral University, led a discussion on how to recruitstudents for “Online Weather Studies.”

Participants were also provided opportunities toobserve and participate in NWS operational activities.NWSTC Instructor Jerry Griffin presented a dailyweather briefing and, with other NWSTC staff, led atour of the facilities. Participants were introduced to the

Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS; Fig. 1),a model cooperative observer station, and the AviationWeather Center, collocated with the NWSTC. On a

field trip to the Topeka, Kan-sas, NWS Forecast Office, par-ticipants observed the Ad-vanced Weather InteractiveProcessing System in action,learned how forecasts are pre-pared, and witnessed thelaunch of a radiosonde bal-loon (Fig. 2). Another fieldtrip took participants to the18th and Vine historic districtin downtown Kansas City,Missouri, where they touredthe Negro Leagues BaseballMuseum and the AmericanJazz Museum.

Most participants in theNWSTC workshop have at-tended or will attend the an-nual education symposium atthe AMS Annual Meeting.Through a poster session, theyshare experiences in either of-fering or planning their initial

offering of “Online Weather Studies.” Seventeen of thediversity project participating institutions have alreadyoffered the course through spring 2003, and about 450students have taken it. Figure 3 shows a student at PaineCollege leading a map discussion in her weather class.

In the postworkshop survey, the vast majority of2002 and 2003 participants gave the NWSTC work-shop an overall rating of excellent in terms of its edu-cational value, and unanimously recommended offer-ing it to future instructors of “Online WeatherStudies.” Participants felt that the workshop wouldhave a long-term positive impact on their teaching ofweather and student advisement, and they were moreconfident in offering the course the following fall orspring semester. The next NWSTC workshop isscheduled for 16–21 May 2004.

CONCLUSIONS. We anticipate that faculty par-ticipating in the AMS “Online Weather Studies” di-versity program will deliver highly motivationallearning experiences that will encourage their stu-dents to consider additional studies in science, per-haps leading to careers in the geosciences or scienceteaching. All students of “Online Weather Studies”

FIG. 2. Witnessing a radiosonde launch atthe Topeka, Kansas, NWS Forecast Office.

FIG. 3. Shunette Woods, a student at Paine College, ahistorically black college in Augusta, Georgia, leads amap discussion in her “Online Weather Studies” class.

41JANUARY 2004AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY |

will become more scientifically literate citizens, withheightened awareness of the nature of scientific in-quiry, critical thinking, and the capabilities and limi-tations of science and technology. For additional in-formation on this AMS diversity project, seewww.ametsoc.org/amsedu/online/info/diversity.html.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We are most grateful toJohn Vogel, director of the NWSTC, and his staff for en-thusiastically hosting our program and providing valuableassistance. This program is funded by NSF Grants GEO-0119740 (OEDG) and DUE-01126032 (CCLI-ND). Thisproject was supported, in part, by the NSF. Opinions ex-pressed are those of the authors and not necessarily thoseof the NSF.

FOR FURTHER READINGAMS/University Corporation for Atmospheric Re-

search, 2000: 2000 Curricula in the Atmospheric, Oce-

anic, Hydrologic, and Related Sciences. Amer. Me-teor. Soc., 501 pp.

Geer, I. W., M. M. Ficek, J. A. Brey, B. A. Blair, R. S.Weinbeck, J. M. Moran, and E. J. Hopkins, 2001:National dissemination of “Online Weather Stud-ies,” a college-level distance-learning course on thebasics of meteorology. Preprints, 10th Symp. on Edu-cation, Albuquerque, NM, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 134–136.

Jones, G.H., 2002: Minorities in the scientificworkforce. Science, 296, 217.

National Science Foundation, cited 2000a: Report of thegeosciences diversity workshop. National ScienceFoundation Report NSF 01-53. (Available online atwww.geo.nsf.gov/geo/diversity/geo_diversity_workshop_final_report_august_00.html.)

——, 2000b: Women, minorities, and persons with dis-abilities in science and engineering: 2000. NationalScience Foundation Report NSF 00-327, 254 pp.

U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000: Census 2000.