COMPUTER DATA ANALYSIS FOR METEOROLOGY - PROJECT-CENTERED SKILL DEVELOPMENT FOR THE EARLY UNDERGRADUATE CAREER

Too often in geoscience education are the computer skills necessary for success in the workforce put off until the last years of undergraduate education. This is especially true in meteorology, a form of geophysical fluid dynamics many people encounter on a daily basis. Meteorologists often need to know specialized computer skills, including the use of scripting languages to automate handling large bundles of data, manipulating four-dimensional arrays (with three spatial dimensions and one time dimension), visualizing said datasets simply and effectively for publication, and performing statistical analysis of those datasets. In the past, such topics were often addressed only at the senior undergraduate level or graduate school. At SUNY Oneonta, we are piloting a course that teaches these skills to third-semester students with the intent of building confidence in these skills throughout students' careers and with the intent of building a tool-box of skills that can be used in upper-division courses and undergraduate research. This poster will present the methods used in building this course, the kinds of activities designed, the desired student learning outcomes, and our assessment plan.