ACTIVE LEARNING IN A LARGE AUDITORIUM INVOLVING MULTIMEDIA, FRIENDS AND FAMILY: THE TORNADO EXAMPLE

Teaching our 300-seat Natural Disasters courses is made more exciting by focusing on the phenomenological processes of the Earth and by employing multiple modes for learning. Our success is indicated by enrollments exceeding 4,000 students a year in a competitive environment.

Goals of our course are both cognitive and affective. We want learners to develop a knowledge base and to use logical thinking. We also want to inspire in each student: 1) a life-long habit of observing the natural world, 2) a habit of forming and revising hypotheses to explain what they see, and 3) discussing their observations and hypotheses with friends and family as part of everyday life. To promote this philosophy, our classroom is OPEN. Friends and family are welcome to visit and participate at any time. For example, a week before the class on tornadoes, verbal exhortations are made to students to bring friends and family to our class who have experienced, or are interested in, tornadoes.

The tornado class employs a wireless microphone (as always). Oral accounts of personal experiences with tornadoes from members of the class/audience are tabulated using colored chalk on the chalkboard and then compared to national data sets using a document presenter via a ceiling-mounted LCD projector. Meanwhile, a CO2 fogger and a collection of fans have been warming up inside a large-scale PVC apparatus in front of the class. After 8-feet tall tornadoes begin spinning, students in informal group discussions try to relate the components of the demonstration to their real-world counterparts in North America. When someone mentions lightning, the auditorium is plunged into darkness and a 250,000-volt Tesla coil creates "lightning." Personal experiences with lightning are shared by participants; each event is discussed to enhance scientific understanding. A web site on tornadoes is projected and topics are selected to fill in data and concepts not covered so far during the class. The finale is a 6-minute videotape of awe-inspiring tornadoes.

The class period is alive with personal accounts and student-generated hypotheses that are channeled extemporaneously by the professor to help students understand. The homework assignment asks students to visualize the demonstrations and then explain to others how tornadoes and lightning work.