http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#discussion http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2868 The primary goal for this workshop is for each of you to leave with a new activity that you can use in your teaching. Some of you may want to do this individually, but others might be interested in a team approach. When I was reading the profiles, several included ideas for activities that might be amenable to a team approach -- so I point them out here in case you want to check them out. Note that I haven't checked with the authors as to whether or not they would like help -- so if you are interested in becoming a team, start a conversation with them to clarify their interest.

Story Problems for the Midwest - Chad Heinzel
Online Lab for Intro/High School - Maria Serena
Reading, evaluating and discussing papers - Cindy Shellito
An activity that can be done in a large class - Cindy Shellito
GIS case based activity for a small class - Christopher Van de Ven]]> Cathy Manduca 1224603540 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2868 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2869
My goal is to make the GIS-aspect of it very basic, so it could be used by students with no GIS background.

--Chris Van de Ven]]> Chris Van de Ven 1224603900 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2869 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2875
more in a bit...]]> Chad Heinzel 1224609540 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2875 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2878
Unfortunately, I have to miss most of the interactive sessions today - but I will be catching up and working on this during the afternoon...]]> Cindy Shellito 1224610020 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2878 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2898
This is something else I'd be willing to work on with others - perhaps at a later date?]]> Cindy Shellito 1224631320 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2898 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2904
Cindy -- the activity which I presented yesterday afternoon on the IPCC confirmation would be easily adapted to an online activity. I've been teaching a lab-based online section of Earth Science for 9 years and though I don't use this particular activity in that section, I don't see any reason it couldn't be used that way. It's delivered through the web, and students access web-based data. It's currently designed to be done collaboratively in small groups, and that could be accommodated via asynchronous interactivity in the online cohort. Alternatively, with slight modification, it could be configured to be done by students individually. Just a thought...

What I'm finding is that as I do more and more web-based instruction in my face-to-face sections, I find my aspirations, objectives, and delivery modes for online and face-to-face are converging.

Rob]]> Robert Kuhlman 1224674880 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2904 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2913 E. Christa Farmer 1224689400 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2913 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2923
Some similarities in our teaching contexts include: the students are non-science majors in a GE geosciences class; the classroom is equipped with networked laptop computers (in my case, roughly one per 2-3 students); students sit at tables facing each other instead of in desks or chairs facing the front of the room (though at least in our case the chairs are on rollers so students can easily reorient to face any direction and roll around to form groups); a significant amount of teaching/learning can be mediated through the campus Web-based course management software (in my case, based on Moodle).

Some differences: my class is larger (40-45 students instead of 25); my students are upper-division students instead of community college students; the course is about meteorology and a little oceanography alone, not geosciences more broadly; my class doesn't have a lab but meets 3 hours per week in two, 1 hour and 15 minute blocks; the exercise I have in mind would likely extend for a longer period (more than the 2 days [how many hours?] that yours took) so that I can address more objectives and build in more content coverage. It would potentially have a more substantial writing component (students in this type of GE class are supposed to do at least 10 pages of substantial writing). ]]> Dave Dempsey 1224711660 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2923 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2924
Today I've done some browsing utilizing references and URLs which our presenters have provided, and I'm quite impressed with the info available from the HURDAT resources. I'm working on a short activity (I'm about a day behind everyone else it feels...) in which students will look for a correlation between NAO index and hurricane frequency, and I'm contemplating moving the hurricane resource over to HURDAT from the Unisys site. Or not... Maybe I'll have one-half use the Unisys data and one-half the HURDAT data and see what we come up with. The point of all this is you may wish to browse through the HURDAT site and see if there's anything there which you might use.

Rob]]> Robert Kuhlman 1224712740 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2924 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2926
Do you have (or plan to add) a component to these exercises in which students consult the literature about tests of hurricane-climate change hypotheses by scientists (or perhaps I should call them "other scientists" or "professional scientists"!). Connecting the results of student investigations with what the professional community considers known--and what it considers still uncertain or unknown--seems like a valuable next stage in this fundamentally inquiry-based approach.]]> Dave Dempsey 1224716640 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2926 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2927
Rob]]> Robert Kuhlman 1224718500 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2927 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2928
Christa - and anyone else who is interested - I am still interested in developing a 'large-class' activity - I teach an introductory meteorology class with ~70 people in a lecture hall that is nicknamed 'the gladiator pit' and a digital projector with spotty reliability :)...I'm thinking of something that could be fairly short, but would involve looking at data perhaps in print format. I like the idea you mentioned, Christa - of having them look at differences in hurricane frequency/tracks in El Nino vs La Nina years...I think an activity like this could have different learning objectives depending on the class. I'd like my students to understand the connection between changes in upper level winds associated with El Nino & hurricane frequency...

Just brainstorming here...But perhaps the class could be divided into thirds - one group looking at El Nino, one at La Nina, and one at an ENSO-neutral year...Present each large group with a data appropriate for their year...

If anyone knows of any activities already along this line, feel free to jump in!

Cindy]]> Cindy Shellito 1224719400 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2928 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2931 Mel Huff 1224727440 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2931 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2977 Sounds like your classroom is less than stellar! And I was just complaining that my seats don't move... :-) I'm going to prioritize my curriculum development to work on my tank idea (see activity response thread, I didn't make a web page for it yet) for my big class next spring, only because I hope a real live experiment will get the students more interested than just data alone... but when I teach my paleoclimatology class and my intro climate system class next fall maybe I'll work on the ENSO-hurricane idea! Let me know if you get anywhere with it... I like the division into thirds. Maybe you could look at the factors in Klotzbach & Gray (2003)that increased skill of the Sep forecast: "low sea level pressure in the tropical
Atlantic, La Nin˜a conditions in the Pacific, and easterly
zonal wind anomalies at 200 mb throughout most of the Tropics for active Septembers"...
--Christa]]> E. Christa Farmer 1224877920 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2977 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2982 Cindy]]> Cindy Shellito 1224881580 http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/hurricanes08/discuss/thoughts_profiles.html#post2982