“Experiencing” Climate Change for Gen-Ed Students: Thoughts and Experiences on Active Learning

1. “Experiencing” Climate Change for Gen-Ed Students: Thoughts and Experiences on Active Learning • Todd D. Ellis • Assistant Professor of Meteorology • SUNY College at Oneonta • SERC Hurricanes and Climate Change - 21 October 2008

2. 21 October 2008 Todd D. Ellis Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop Confucius Says I hear and I forget I see and I remember I do and I understand • Current efforts in visualization • Observations and Climate - What’s in your data? • Climate comparisons - Putting dream vacations to work • Post-mortem Analyses - How did the pieces fit? • Thoughts on the future • Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics - How to interpret the climate change data • Spinning Around - Experiments on the Small Scale

3. 21 October 2008 Todd D. Ellis Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop There’s more to data than just numbers • Students are often familiar with the data, but not always with the measurements • Experiment #1 - Measuring humidity different ways • Sling psychrometry is really fun, Kestrels are cool • How might changing your observation method affect climate records? Students at Paragon Senior Secondary School in Mohali, Punjab, India taking Cloud Observations

4. 21 October 2008 Todd D. Ellis Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop Heat Islands • Experiment #2 - Urban Heat Island Measurements • Class project for upperclassmen/intro grad students • Designing your own experiment (and then watching it fail) is a good way to learn about the effects of microclimates A sketch of a heat island epa.gov Landsat Image of Atlanta, GA NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

5. 21 October 2008 Todd D. Ellis Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop Climate Comparisons • Intro to Meteorology (this semester) • Asking Students to Compare Climates between the local station and a world city of their choice A Work in Progress - the results are due this week Students have been going out and getting additional data They are thinking about unique ways to portray the data, and are really going all out

6. 21 October 2008 Todd D. Ellis Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop Post-Mortem Analysis • One of the most instructive things I’ve found in my classes is not the forecast, but the post-mortem analysis • As far as climate connections, I think it can then set the stage for which changes are important

7. 21 October 2008 Todd D. Ellis Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics • We are developing a new class devoted to climate change science, policy debates, and mitigation proposals • Students should know how to understand the emerging studies on the multitude of statistics at play • There is hope - students have shown that they know how to dig in with a little guidance

8. 21 October 2008 Todd D. Ellis Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop Spinning Around • We have a department “Weather in a Tank” unit that we use currently for in class demos with an eye for independent study • A thought - would we be able to simulate the theoretical shutdown of the thermohaline circulation? would the ocean freeze and wolves run free in the classroom?

9. 21 October 2008 Todd D. Ellis Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop http://www-paoc.mit.edu/labguide/ Not only demonstrating the thermohaline circulation, but asking students to explore what would happen if the density difference decreased?

10. 21 October 2008 Todd D. Ellis Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop Conclusions • When students “do”, the questions they ask are enlightening, their intuition improves, and they gain valuable work skills as well • I’m hoping to share ideas on what we can visualize and “do” to teach about these connections with climate