HR: 1330h
AN: ED13B-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Developing a Space Weather Policy Course
AU: * Fisher, G
EM: fisher@dc.ametsoc.org
AF: American Meteorological Society, Policy Program 1120 G Street, NW Suite 800, Washington, DC 20005
AU: Poland, A I
EM: apoland@gmu.edu
AF: George Mason University, School of Computational Sciences, Fairfax, VA 22030
AB: Space weather is a field where policy, societal, and economic aspects are becoming increasingly important as our society becomes more dependent on activities and technology that are affected by conditions in the space environment. It is important that present and future scientists are prepared to fully participate in the challenging opportunities that lie ahead, including communicating to policy makers, making sound public policy decisions, and communicating science to the public. One way of providing a better foundation is to integrate policy and science at universities. This has been a challenge, or even absent in university science departments. While some universities offer science policy courses on a broad scale, offering policy courses catered to science students has been a major challenge for various reasons (i.e., lack of interdisciplinary courses, discouragement from professors, need to fulfill necessary degree requirements, professor not comfortable with introducing policy topics). This presentation will discuss a project at the American Meteorological Society Policy Program aimed at integrating policy into atmospheric and space physics curricula. The focus will be on an "Introduction to Science Policy: Space Weather and Meteorology" pilot course being taught at George Mason University, School of Computational Sciences. Lessons learned, student feedback, and ways of introducing policy topics will be discussed.
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 2799 General or miscellaneous
DE: 3399 General or miscellaneous
DE: 6620 Science policy
DE: 7599 General or miscellaneous
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly