# Readme for the Advanced Version of the Severe Weather Forecasting Activity. # Daryl Herzmann ( akrherz@iastate.edu ) 12 June 2000 # v.0.0.2 Severe Weather Forecasting Activity 1. Introduction 2. Setting up your class to use the activity 3. Customizing the activity for your class 4. Pointing your students to the correct location 5. FAQ -------> 1. Introduction The severe weather forecasting activity is a web-based exercise developed at Iowa State University for use in a wide range of meteorology classes. This activity uses archived weather data, prepared questions and responses, and just-in-time questions to teach the students important meteorological concepts. The exercise has been broken into three versions based on the difficulty of the questions asked and topics covered. The advanced version of the exercise contains questions geared for upper-level meteorology students. Here is a listing of some of the questions asked in the exercise. -- From this initial data and the model forecasts, name a state where you think severe weather may threaten on this day. -- What role do you feel a cap will play in this event? (is there one, how strong, where might it prevent convection) -- Examine how 700 mb temperatures are changing upstream of Kansas City (over the distance air might travel in 8 hours). What do these changes indicate with respect to severe weather potential: -- By this time of day, it can be important to look at satellite data or surface observations to see if cloudcover is present in a severe weather risk area. What impact could cloudcover in this case at this time have on later severe weather: -- Within a region that you feel could have severe weather, do you see any areas where lingering cloudcover from earlier convective systems may reduce the instability, making severe weather less likely? -- What can you infer in this case from the moisture divergence plot at this time, and over the last 2-3 hours: -- If no storms have yet developed in the region you expect severe weather, describe where you expect initiation to occur later, roughly what time youŽd expect it, and what mechanism you think will initiate it. If your forecast is verifying OK, explain the main reasons you correctly picked this state. -- The evolution of the dew point field in a region of severe weather risk can reveal important information about the atmosphere. Which statement is true for this event: -- If no storms have yet formed in your region, estimate a probability that something will yet occur today in your area (if there are storms, just answer "OK"). Justify your probability (if your probability is 50% or more, explain why you still expect storms; if not, explain what you think is going wrong). After these questions are asked during the exercise, the users are given immediate responses. The weather data can then be reviewed, if the user desires; otherwise, the user continues on throughout the case. -------> 2. Setting up your class to use the activity The advanced version of the exercise is available for anybody to work though, but the results of the user's work are not saved nor sent to anyone. If you would simply like your users to do the exercise for the experience alone, a class does not need to be set up. On the other hand, if an instructor would like their students' results emailed to them, he/she would need to set up a class. Setting up a class is easily accomplished with the on-line class registration. The URL is located at https://pals.agron.iastate.edu/svr_frcst/advInstructor.html . The page contains some of the same information presented in this document. Once you have reviewed the information, click on the link to create a class. The subsequent page presents a simple form to fill out. Please fill out the required fields and submit the form. You may want to password protect your exercise, so that only your students can access the exercise. This protection keeps others from running the exercise and then sending you results of people not in your class. After submitting the form, a result page is generated, showing you the values for your class. It also has two links on the page, which show you where you can modify the exercise and where users should go in order to start the exercise. You will want to write these URLs down for future reference. -------> 3. Customizing the activity for your class In order for your users to use the exercise as members of your class, you need to "release" cases for use by your class. The PALS staff has created a multitude of cases for use by your class. These cases are ready to be used by your class as soon as you release them. Releasing cases is easily done through the classAdmin webpages on the PALS server. The classAdmin pages can be found at https://pals.agron.iastate.edu/cgi-bin/severe2/classAdmin/index.py . Once you access this page, you are prompted for a password. Enter your class abreviation and password that you created in Step 2. Once you have successfully logged in, you will see a listing of options that can be used to customize the exercise. [Create/Edit/Add Specific Questions] This option allows you to add specific questions and answers to any time in any of the cases. For instance, if you wanted to add a question about the 13Z moisture convergence plot at 13z 18 June 1998, you could click on this option, select the case for 18 June 2000 and then select the 13z time. Then you will be presented with a form in which you can enter a question, options, answers, and responses. Once you have submitted this form, the question will appear for your users in the exercise. You will recieve the results of this question in an email as soon as your users finish the case. [Release/Revoke Cases] This option allows your users to work through cases that you release to them. When the user starts the exercise, they are presented a list of cases that they can work through. In order for cases to appear in this list, they need to released to them. Simply fallow the instructions and populate the right hand column with cases you wish them to work through. [Edit Hourly Annonations] This option allows the administrator to tweak the annonations that appear throughout the case. Sometimes the instructor will want to ask a question whose answer may have been given away previously in one of the annonations. With this option, the administration can edit the annotations as they see fit. -------> 4. Pointing your students to the correct location In order for your users to log into the exercise under your class, they need to be pointed to a specific location. It is recomended that you set up a link from one of your local webpages that points to the exercise on the PALS server. The URL to link to is given to you when you create the class. The other method is to give your users the URL and have them type it in. -------> 5. FAQ -- The instructions are too long, give me the quick ones. Go to https://pals.agron.iastate.edu/svr_frcst/advInstructor.html and then click on the link to "Create a Class." Fill out the form for your class and then write down the URLs given to you. Then log into classAdmin and release a case for your class to use. Then point your students to the main page for the exercise, in which they can then work through cases you have released. Once they complete the case, you will be emailed their results. Done :) -- I cannot read the emails that are sent to me, when my students complete the exercise. If you indeed have this problem, email Daryl Herzmann at akrherz@iastate.edu and tell him of your setup that is not allowing the emails to be viewed. -- Is there anyway to turn off some of the questions that automatically appear throughout the case? Currently, I do not have a mechanism to do this. I will incorporate it into the exercise in the near future. -- I forgot my password for classAdmin. Please help. Just email Daryl Herzmann at akrherz@iastate.edu and I will send it to you. -- How tight is security / authentification for the exercise? Security is not a major concern to this exercise, yet. Your information is safe on the PALS server and your email will not be given out. -- What should I do about grading this exercise? Currently, we recommend that you just give your students credit for working each case in the exercise and then grading their text responses. The exercise is meant as a learning tool for the students and not neccessarily as a quiz. The best use of the results may be to influence what material is reviewed or emphasized in lectures.