Teaching Climate Change Online
The UW-Madison Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (AOS) department debuted a 100-level course on Climate and Climate Change completely on-line this spring semester thanks to a NASA-funded collaboration between Madison College (formally MATC) and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS).
Along with the lighter carbon footprint and the added convenience of web-based access, students were able to interact via Drupal forums, Google hangout, and Twitter. Activities included ice-on/ice-off investigations of the Madison lakes, web-based field trips, and a future snow removal project delivered through the DoIT Engage Case Scenario tool.
CIMSS Director Steve Ackerman was the professor on record and AOS grad student Zak Handlos was the (awesome) class TA. Scott Lindstrom from the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), the PI on the NASA grant, developed and taught a similar course at Madison College. Margaret Mooney from CIMSS worked with Ackerman and Handlos to infuse Madison College course material into the new UW class. Videos, webinars, stories and activities assembled came primarily from NASA, NOAA, the National Research Council and CIMSS/SSEC. The climate research highlighted was purposely regionally focused, featuring work by AOS professors and findings from the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts.
Patrick Rowley from CIMSS developed the DoIT Engage Case Scenario on future snow removal in the fictional town of "Munson" Wisconsin. (with data very similar to Madison!) Rowley and Ackerman presented this work at a DoIT seminar at Union South in April. The entire project will be featured in a poster presentation in the 2013 Teaching and Learning Symposium at the end of May.
Steve Ackerman and Patrick Rowley present the snow removal scenario at a DoIT seminar.
