You have already or should soon receive information from your course LIT leader on filling out a course evaluation and survey. This is a requirement for receiving credit for the course. If you have not received this information by the end of the week, please contact your LIT leader.
WELCOME BACK: Procedure continued from Investigation Manual, Investigation 12A.
In the first part of this investigation, we saw how climate change may involve a change in mean value and/or variability of a climatic parameter such as temperature. Such climate changes may have serious consequences for the water cycle, water resources, agriculture, and other sectors of society. An important aspect of climate change studies is analysis of the climate record. In this part of the investigation, we examine sources of local and regional climate information. Note that this portion of the investigation must be completed online.
Among the most readily available sources of local and regional climate information are the websites of National Weather Service (NWS) Forecast Offices. Website features vary from office to office but typically include climate sections along with information on hazardous weather, current weather, rivers and hydrology, specialized programs (e.g., aviation, marine, and fire weather), and outreach/education activities.
Go to http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/forecastoffice_tab.php for a map of the locations of NWS Forecast Offices. Find the NWS Forecast Office that provides forecasts for your area by clicking on the station or stations nearest you. The office you selected was ______________________. (Note: If that location does not have a functioning website, click on the nearest NWS Forecast Office that does and give its name here: ________________________________)
For climate information, go to the Climate choices on the left, blue menu list. Click on "Local Information," "Local Area," or similar designation, usually the first selection. Generally a page of choices for cities and/or types of data will be displayed. Try to find the listing of daily climatological data, usually listed by month. [Some stations report these data as Preliminary Local Climatological Data (WS Form CF6 or F-6).] This listing or similar day-by-day summary provides information on average values of several climatic measurements including [(temperature) (precipitation) (both of these)].
Go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hic/RFCs.htm. You live in the service area of the ________________________________ RFC, located in __________________________________ (city and state). Click on your RFC from the list to the right of the map for information on hydrology and water management issues.
As noted in this week's DataStreme WES Supplemental Information, the principal source of climate data in the U.S. is the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). For a list of NCDC climate products, visit http://www5.ncdc.noaa.gov/pubs/publications.html. Note that that the NOAA National Data Centers online data access policy now provides all online data free to academic users with .edu and .k12.xx.us domains. All .gov, .mil, and a few other specific domains also have free access. An NCDC publication with significant educational potential, parts of which can be found on some NWS Forecast Office websites, is Local Climatological Data (LCD), Annual Summary. LCDs are available for over 300 locations in the U.S.
Self-Assessment Revisited: Respond to the statements below. Compare your responses now with those you made at the beginning of the investigation. Has learning taken place?
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True, False |
Confidence |
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Climate change consists only of long-term trends in the averages of temperature and precipitation. |
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A change in the frequency of extreme weather events can accompany climate change and may impact agricultural productivity. |
Professional Practice Transfer:
Driving Question: State an additional Driving Question appropriate to your classroom that you have conceived as the result of conducting this Investigation.
Implementation: Describe how you would use what you have learned in this investigation to implement inquiry-based learning experiences for your students.
Place the answers to Investigation 12A and the above questions on the Investigations Response Form which will be available Thursday and linked from the WES website. Directions for delivery of your weekly investigation will appear at the end of the Thursday online portion of Investigation 12B.
DataStreme WES participants: Your successful completion of the
DataStreme WES course with the Thursday Investigation, your final course meeting
and submitting the course evaluation, includes 3 graduate semester hours of
credit from the State University of New York College at Brockport.
ESC 636 Water Resources Topics
A distance- learning course
covers the study of selected topics in water dealing with its sensing, analysis,
causes, impacts, and prediction.
"ESC" indicates this is a course
from the Department of the Earth Sciences and "636" indicates it
is a course at the graduate level.
You will not receive notification from Brockport of your credit. However, you may verify your course grade subsequent to 20 May 2007 by accessing the SUNY Brockport computer system directly:
To request a certified transcript copy (cost $5), call Registration and Records at SUNY Brockport at 585-395-2531 and follow the provided directions, or go to: http://www.brockport.edu/registrar/transcript.html.
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