HR: 1340h
AN: ED33B-1224    [Abstracts]
TI: Active Learning in an Introductory Meteorology Class
AU: * Marchese, P J
EM: pmarchese@qcc.cuny.edu
AF: Queensborough Community College, 222-05 56 avenue, Bayside, NY 11364-1497, United States
AU: Bluestone, C
EM: cbluestone@gmail.com
AF: Queensborough Community College, 222-05 56 avenue, Bayside, NY 11364-1497, United States
AB: Active learning modules were introduced to the primarily minority population in the introductory meteorology class at Queensborough Community College (QCC). These activities were developed at QCC and other 4 year colleges and designed to reinforce basic meteorological concepts. The modules consisted of either Interactive Lecture Demonstrations (ILD) or discovery-based activities. During the ILD the instructor would describe an experiment that would be demonstrated in class. Students would predict what the outcome would be and compare their expected results to the actual outcome of the experiment. In the discovery-based activities students would learn about physical concepts by performing basic experiments. These activities differed from the traditional lab in that it avoided "cookbook" procedures and emphasized having the students learn about the concept using the scientific method. As a result of these activities student scores measuring conceptual understanding, as well as factual knowledge, increased as compared to student scores in a more affluent community college. Students also had higher self- efficacy scores. Lower scoring students demonstrated the greatest benefit, while the better students had little (or no) changes.
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting