1997 Unidata/COMET Workshop

Subject: Welcome and Introduction

Speaker : Melanie Wetzel

Desert Research Institute

University of Nevada, Reno

  • Welcome to all participants of the Unidata/COMET Summer Faculty Workshop. A registration help desk has been set up for your convenience in Room 1001.

  • This workshop is the result of efforts by the Unidata Users Committee and Unidata and COMET staff. Its goal is to enhance the teaching of atmospheric and related goesciences through the use of satellite data and computer applications.

  • The Users Committee decided to design this workshop based on a suggestion by Jim Purdom, that the educational community would greatly benefit from a topic relating to satellite remote sensing and the educational application. Additionally the need has been expressed for using new tools for implementing computer-based instruction in the geosciences. The net result is a workshop which brings together educators in the geosciences with leading researchers in remote sensing as well as experts in instructional design, cognitive science, and real-time data access and analysis systems.

  • Funding for this workshop has been provided by the National Science Foundation, through the Unidata Program, and NOAA, through the COMET Program. NSF Program Managers who are joining us here at the workshop are Cliff Jacobs, Mike Mayhew and Bob Ridky. Please take some time to talk with them during the week about your own school's instructional development activities and interests in the geosciences.

  • We have structured this workshop to include a great deal of interaction during small-group discussions and hands-on development activities, in the course of which we will be preparing sample instructional materials. Please participate as fully as possible in the various stages in the materials development process, and don't hesitate to voice your opinions on what methods you feel are most valuable in preparing and implementing the instructional products. If you find you would much rather be in a Group other than the one to which you've been assigned, let us know and we will try to accomodate you.

  • It would be helpful for you to know who will be organizing the various activities, discussions and lab sessions, so I'd like to introduce several people to you.

  • Please wear your nametags during the entire week, so it is easier for us all to communicate with one another.

  • Now, I would like to introduce Dr. David Fulker, the Director of the UCAR Unidata Program.