“Experiencing” Climate Change for Gen-Ed Students: Thoughts and Experiences on Active Learning Todd D. Ellis Assistant Professor of Meteorology SUNY College at Oneonta SERC Hurricanes and Climate Change - 21 October 2008

I hear and I forget I see and I remember I do and I understand Confucius Says Current efforts in visualization Observations and Climate - What’s in your data? Climate comparisons - Putting dream vacations to work Post-mortem Analyses - How did the pieces fit? Thoughts on the future Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics - How to interpret the climate change data Spinning Around - Experiments on the Small Scale Todd D. Ellis 21 October 2008 Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop

There’s more to data than just numbers Students are often familiar with the data, but not always with the measurements Experiment #1 - Measuring humidity different ways Sling psychrometry is really fun, Kestrels are cool How might changing your observation method affect climate records? Students at Paragon Senior Secondary School in Mohali, Punjab, India taking Cloud Observations Todd D. Ellis 21 October 2008 Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop

Heat Islands Experiment #2 - Urban Heat Island Measurements Class project for upperclassmen/intro grad students Designing your own experiment (and then watching it fail) is a good way to learn about the effects of microclimates epa.gov NASA Scientific Visualization Studio Landsat Image of Atlanta, GA A sketch of a heat island Todd D. Ellis 21 October 2008 Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop

Climate Comparisons Intro to Meteorology (this semester) Asking Students to Compare Climates between the local station and a world city of their choice A Work in Progress - the results are due this week Students have been going out and getting additional data They are thinking about unique ways to portray the data, and are really going all out Todd D. Ellis 21 October 2008 Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop

Post-Mortem Analysis One of the most instructive things I’ve found in my classes is not the forecast, but the post- mortem analysis As far as climate connections, I think it can then set the stage for which changes are important Todd D. Ellis 21 October 2008 Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics We are developing a new class devoted to climate change science, policy debates, and mitigation proposals Students should know how to understand the emerging studies on the multitude of statistics at play There is hope - students have shown that they know how to dig in with a little guidance Todd D. Ellis 21 October 2008 Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop

Spinning Around We have a department “Weather in a Tank” unit that we use currently for in class demos with an eye for independent study A thought - would we be able to simulate the theoretical shutdown of the thermohaline circulation? would the ocean freeze and wolves run free in the classroom? Todd D. Ellis 21 October 2008 Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop

Not only demonstrating the thermohaline circulation, but asking students to explore what would happen if the density difference decreased? paoc.mit.edu/labguide/ Todd D. Ellis 21 October 2008 Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop

Conclusions When students “do”, the questions they ask are enlightening, their intuition improves, and they gain valuable work skills as well I’m hoping to share ideas on what we can visualize and “do” to teach about these connections with climate Todd D. Ellis 21 October 2008 Hurricane and Climate Change Workshop