Using Web-based Java Applets to Simulate Weather and Climate

Steve Ackerman
Associate Professor, Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
University of Wisconsin-Madison
stevea@ssec.wisc.edu

I began using technology in my class because students in my large (about 400 students)

Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences 101 Cloud formation applet Contouring applets: Isotherms Contouring applets: Isobars Tom Whittaker's home page (links to other applets) Verner E. Suomi Virtual Museum Suomi Virtual Museum gift shop (links to other applets) Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) (links to weather data) Flashlight Project

"Introduction to Weather and Climate" course were having difficulty understanding a fundamental concept - contour analysis. I just didn't have the time to spend with the students as they struggled with the material; they needed a lot of feedback as they practiced drawing contours. My NASA grant required some outreach funding, so I decided to use some of those funds to create some java applets that would enable my students to practice drawing contour maps on their own with very basic data sets and then with actual data. They could draw a map and then get immediate feedback on their success by looking at a correct contour map. This was successful enough that I, with a colleague who could write programs, developed applets for almost every topic in this course. These applets are available for free, and can be run or downloaded from our website.

If you have any questions about our project, you can contact me at:
stevea@ssec.wisc.edu