InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Natural Hazards and Risks: Hurricanes > Instructor Stories > Joan Ramage
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Initial Publication Date: August 15, 2014

Joan Ramage: Teaching Natural Hazards and Risks: Hurricanes in Introduction to Environmental Science at Lehigh University

About this Course

A large introductory environmental science course for majors and non-majors.

75
students
Two 75-minute lecture
sessions
No required lab

Private university

Syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 81kB Mar4 14)

A Success Story in Building Student Engagement

The Hurricane Hazards module was used a two-week portion of a large introductory Earth and Environmental Sciences class (Introduction to Environmental Science), part of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at Lehigh University. Classes met twice per week and there was no required lab. The course was primarily taught by one of my colleagues, so I was a guest for the purposes of module testing. The module introduced more hands-on and interactive activities than was typical in this lecture format course. By the end of the module, students were increasingly interactive with each other and able to discuss the overall scenario.

I tried to link the material in the module with their personal experiences with recent storms, and I think that helped students to have more engagement and ownership of the topic.

My Experience Teaching with InTeGrate Materials

I wanted to give the students some interactive experiences even though it was a large lecture format course, so I selected activities in which they would be doing something and have to respond back. I added some material (which is now incorporated into the module) to walk the students through some of the exercises, such as the hurricane tracker, and the Excel spreadsheet on ACE. We also incorporated more examples from Superstorm Sandy because it had recently occurred and directly affected many within our student population. Incorporating the different circumstances and responses to Hurricanes Irene (2011) and Sandy (2012) was a really interesting component of the module.

Relationship of InTeGrate Materials to my Course

The two weeks of this module were taught during the part of the course for hurricanes and right after a unit on climate and climate change. I used selected parts of the module because it was only two weeks (four class periods) and included no lab.

Assessments

Students were assessed through quiz questions, concept diagrams, descriptions of land use changes, and a collaborative effort to choose roles and role-play what to do in an evacuation emergency in a local setting. Overall learning in the course was assessed with quizzes and tests. Module learning was assessed with a pre/post assessment, an attitudes assessment, homework, in-class assignments such as response diagrams related to the material, a panel discussion, and sketches of observations.

Outcomes

I hoped that students would recognize the important connections between ocean, the atmosphere, the land surface, and human systems. They are asked to explore past data sets and make their own observations in the process of learning about hurricanes. Throughout the module I observed students discussing how to make decisions about science and society based on data and their recent past experiences. It was great to see the students learning to grapple with data sets and how to make choices with limited information. Many students rose to the occasion in thinking about how hurricanes impact both communities and individuals.

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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »