Assessing the Use of Real-time DataStreme Weather Data in an Introductory Physical Geography Course

The online data from the American Meteorological Society's DataStreme course have been used successfully in a traditional undergraduate college weather and climate class. DataStreme was designed to train K-12 teachers to transform weather data into exciting learning experiences. Adaptation of these materials so that some of this excitement could be infused in a traditional college setting was the goal of this pedagogical experiment. These data and associated learning materials have been adapted specifically for use in undergraduate weather and climate courses and are now being made available by AMS as Online Weather Studies. This paper describes and assesses the use of online data. The assessment involved a comparison of student self-reports of factual knowledge mastery, skills acquisition and satisfaction with the methods used in two sections of the same course, one offered with the real-time weather data and one without.