calment presentation

CALMet99 Presentation

The making Web-based, highly-interactive instructional aids

by Tom Whittaker and Steve Ackerman
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Abstract

During the past year, a very successful collaboration between a professor of meteorology (who is also involved in University activities to explore the use of technology in the classroom) and a software developer with an atmospheric science background, has led to the creation of several highly interactive instructional aids for use in and out of the classroom, for both teachers and students. At least one scenario will be described in detail in order to illustrate how such efforts can be extremely successful. Tips and techniques will also be presented based on our experience.

Introduction.

I am fortunate to ride both sides of a fence in our work: I have a background in operational meteorology, teaching, research, and software development. For the past 20 plus years, I've been a part of the McIDAS project at the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) in Madison. During the last year, however, I've had the opportunity to become involved in working with a young, motivated professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Steven Ackerman. Our collaborations have been extra-ordinarily successful in creating useful, web-based tools to aid both instructors and students. My presentation today is at once a description of process and a presentation of results.

How it began.

During the Spring of 1998, a new committee was formed within the SSEC to help coordinate the software needs of various science projects. With a strong history in software development, I was one of the technical folks in the group. While most of the discussions centered on research and field project needs, we spent a little time considering the possible needs in education as well. Professor Ackerman, also a participant, approached me after the meeting and wondered about the feasibility of making a small Java applet to illustrate the components of some formula related to radiation. I'm not trying to be vague -- the fact is I hadn't taken a radiation course in a couple of decades, and only had a notion of what he was talking about.

Having just done some "playing" creating a few Java applets and applications, I was optimistic that anything was possible. The only hitch was, he was leaving on a trip in two days and wanted to take it with him. I am not sure which of us was more surprised that the next day I handed him a URL to look at. (Here is a screen shot if you cannot run the applet.) He liked it. He wanted the source code. I knew right then he was just the kind of person to work with -- he wanted to learn just as badly as I did.

Who does what?

As we talked about what he needed, it became clear we were both bringing specialized talents and experience together to make something bigger than either one of use was individually capable of. Steve's love of teaching and involvement with the University System's technology in the classroom groups, coupled with his knowledge of the science and desire to try new things made him an ideal person to work with on exploring ways to effectively exploit the Web for instruction.

My role is obviously one of software developer, but I also bring to the table experience in meteorology, communications, and interface design.

I see this as an ideal collaboration. Steve likes to dabble in software for his research; I taught one semester of a class once. So we each appreciate the other's work. But we also share a common goal: to provide new, innovative, and effective tools for students and teachers.

To give a balanced presentation, I want to present our first "collaboration". Here's the applet. I know you're supposed to enter numbers and get some result, but beyond that, I haven't a clue as to what it's for!

The Real Thing (or Complexity versus Simplicity)

"You know what would be really cool?" he asked one day. "I'd like to have the students be able to practice drawing contours on the Web. Can you do that?" Like any good designer, I first had to ask him what "that" was. We sat in his office for an hour while a preached scenarios while he talked about pedagogy. We drew pictures on the blackboard, erased them and drew more. What began to evolve was more than a design for a progressive disclosure approach to teaching contour line drawing -- it was a process for creating exciting new tools for teaching.

Our dreams and visions were quite grandiose; however, we were actually fortunate that funding and time causes use to scale back the vision to something more pragmatic. I say "fortunate" because one of the most important lessons we learned from this was to keep each module simple and concise. Do not overwhelm with the mechanics of doing the exercise. And always put yourself in the role of the student (or other user).

The contouring applet has been in use for four semesters now, and quite frankly we only made two changes. (Here is a screen shot if you cannot run the applet.) But they were important ones: first, we did better testing on a variety of computers. Early on we found that not all Java Virtual Machines were created equal; things have gotten much better in the past six months, but it is still important to program for the least common denominator. The second change was to have the "Erase Line" button only erase the last line or segment drawn, rather than all the lines. It didn't take the students long to realize this was a problem; and when we received the first evaluations it was so obvious that I could only laugh at myself.

More applets, new challenges

I'd like to show a few more of the applets we've been developing and talk briefly about the experiences and lessons we've had.

Station model interpretation.

It was helpful, we found, to connect it to realtime data. At least by providing a means for students to get the current weather this way, the ability to decode the station model was enhanced.

Here is a screen shot.

ERBE data. Steve is an active researcher in the use of multi-spectral remote sensing data. As part of this, he has worked with the ERBE data. We talked about having the students explore this 5 year dataset and provide them with some basic graphing tools that might show them some techniques of how researchers to their job. We've only gotten a start on this, but it serves to illustrate an important point: in much development of computer-based learning modules, it is not always clear from the outset how a particular tool can be used effectively.

This one is destined to be included in the curriculum some day, but we've not found the right combination yet.

Thermodynamic diagram. Traditionally, certain aspects of stability are taught by using a thermodynamic diagram to depict the vertical distribution of temperature and moisture. Several packages are available to allow interactive changes to the profiles in order to explore the results on the stability. Our first version looked a lot like those. The output was text just a listing of common stability parameters, recomputed whenever the profile changed.

Informative and boring. In one brainstorming session, we talked about what the important lessons were in this section of his class (an introductory class for non-science majors). When we got to the "bottom line" and discovered it was to connect this to the "real weather", the challenge became clear: the applet should make a cloud, a shower, a thunderstorm. It should not just present a bunch of numbers. (Here is a screen shot.)

The result is "cute", but it is also extremely effective because it is, well, fun!

And of course, along with this we had to make an applet to "predict" the base of summertime cumulus clouds. Note the controls: simple and self-explanatory.

Satellite images as seen on TV. Hints about what we really need come from a variety of places. It took just one comment to me about the "clouds" someone saw on the television news to realize they didn't really know what they were looking at. And so we talked about this and decided that two aspects (height/temperature and thickness) were important. We started with height/temperature to focus attention on the fact that the images are (usually) infrared.

Some things get started, but...

As part of a lesson on global energy, we created a simple applet for illustrating the Effective Temperature (screen shot). Here the students get to move their own planet around. We purposefully overloaded the lesson here, to let them also reinforce (or learn) about scales in two dimensional graphs; hence, they can change between linear and log scales. We're not sure where to go next with this one.

When we get together to brainstorm, sometimes it's essential to start putting something together and then watch it evolve. Sometimes, these things don't go anywhere. Take the case of the Global Energy Budget applet (or a simple screen shot is probably sufficient). We got a great start. Technical issues slowly resolved themselves. But then we got stuck. Where should this really go to be an effective learning aid? In other words: how do we integrate this applet into the curriculum?

How it works nowadays

At last year's AMS meeting in Dallas, Steve and I and a few others met with a publisher to talk about the inclusion of Caroms in textbooks. After the meeting, the two of us stayed to talk a little more specifically about some questions they had...one of which was about a proposed example of a "temperature versus dew point curve" to illustrate "relative humidity". Steve and I looked at each other, rolled our eyes (a sign that now means: we can do this a whole lot better) and started talking about a more effective way to present these concepts.

It's winter. It's cold outside. Inside, though, the air is warmer. But it's extremely dry. Why? Because you're just heating up the outside air without adding moisture. How do we show that? With some thermometers, some relative humidity gages, and a picture of a house to make sure everyone knows what we're talking about. "How about if we add a furnace?" Great idea. And of course "we need a door that can open...so someone can say 'shut the door!!!'". Yes. "And what about indoor activities that raise the humidity?" Absolutely.

And of course, make it fun! The only caveat from the publisher was to get it done in a week. The software was no sweat -- needed to make a generic thermometer and a gage. The hardest part, quite frankly, was finding a photo for the background.

I showed it to Steve, he suggested a different layout. No problem. We decided that this should really be a simulation, so we needed some reasonable constants for effects likely opening the door or taking a shower. We tuned it. And were done by the following Friday.

And it is fun...

Conclusions

I don't think our situation is completely unique. We have shared our experiences with everyone who'll listen. We are promoting the creating of highly-interactive Web-based tools for students and teachers. We know there are a few others like us, actively pursuing these goals, and my hope is to have stimulated your desire enough to go seek out that counterpart so you, too, can begin a collaboration as fruitful and fulfilling as I've enjoyed. At the AMS meeting, I presented a paper on the lessons Steve and I have learned while doing our work. I hope as you begin, you'll take a look at those and let us and everyone know of the lessons you learn.