1. Reforming Teaching Practice: Introductory Severe Weather
Dr. Cody Kirkpatrick
Indiana University
July 21, 2016
Slides available on the conference website

2. About this course Atmospheric-based natural hazards
Freshman level, now general education
3 cr., no lab, 2 meetings per week (75 min)

3. My first couple years… Evaluations were fine…
…but I struggled with organization.
And I was not assessing correctly.

4. Questions I began asking
What should class time really look like?
How should it be organized?
What should we “do?”
In what ways should I be guiding students in their learning?

5. “…as science is practiced.”

6. How is science practiced?
Is science practiced by standing around talking about it for 50 or 75 minutes at a time?
Or is the practice of science:
Interactive
Collaborative
Socrative
Based on observation of the physical world. And has been for 2,000 years.

7. Here’s one example. Students love tornadoes
Are a key topic in a severe weather course
I developed a “mini-lab” for students to closely examine tornado damage
Wikipedia Commons

8. Here’s one example. Before class: In class:
Read ~6 pages from the textbook
Watch a 5-minute Youtube video
Answer 3 questions online about these tasks
In class:
A full class period spent on examining photos and determining wind speeds

9. And then… Let students practice mastery in class "Roof is gone"
"Windows blown out"
"Some exterior walls still standing"
"Barn in the back is okay???"
"Half of house totally compromised"
"Debris still on-site"
Potterville, MI, 2008 – Ben Holcomb

10. An important point. You gotta have learning outcomes!
What do you want students to be able to do?
“Estimate a tornado’s wind speeds based on a photograph of damage”
“Describe differences in damage from one location to another in the same tornado”
If the activity isn’t aligned with your course goals, it’s not worth doing.