HR: 09:45h
AN: ED11A-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Effects of Interactive Applets on Student Understanding and Explanation of Introductory Weather Concepts
AU: * Ackerman, S A
EM: stevea@ssec.wisc.edu
AF: University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1225 West Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706
AU: Yaros, R A
EM: ron@yaros.com
AF: University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1225 West Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706
AU: Whittaker, T
EM: tomw@ssec.wisc.edu
AF: University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1225 West Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706
AB: Use of the Internet's virtually unlimited resources continues to increase in introductory college courses. The "Web" can offer students with: lecture notes, graphics, study guides (such as flash cards), self-administered quizzes, and interactive applets that animate complex concepts and processes. In the lecture-based course "Weather and Climate," consisting of approximately 400 non-science majors, interactive applets were developed to demonstrate introductory meteorological concepts. Results from the course's formative evaluation suggest utility of the supplemental online resources in student learning. In this study, we pursue three goals to empirically measure the effects of the animated meteorological applets on the learning. First, we measure if an interactive applet increases comprehension of scientific explanations by students with no previous expert knowledge. Second, we measure whether the applet enhance their understanding of "cause-and-effect" processes. Third, we investigate whether an applet facilitates a student's application of concepts and processes to problem-solving. Methodologically, approximately 400 students are randomly assigned to one of two conditions. One group is exposed to only text and graphics on a Web page that explains the concept of relative humidity. The second group of students is exposed to the same Web page of text and graphics, but also to an animated applet with which students can interact. To assess learning gains, students' responses to questions about these presented concepts are compared. Recall and free recall of content is measured using questions that range from text-based definitions (multiple choice) to problem-solving (short answer).
UR: http://profhorn.aos.wisc.edu/wxwise/AckermanKnox/
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting