goal 3. Cultivate a scientifically literate and engaged citizenry and a diverse and creative workforce
NCAR Strategic Priority: Supporting and Enhancing Formal Science Education at All Levels
A Serious Game for Coastal Hazards and Sustainability
Logo of the Disaster Dynamics project 2003-2008
The Disaster Dynamics project was initated in 2003 with funding from the National Science Foundation to develop an educational computer game about the interactions between human decisions and natural hazards in a fictional Gulf Coast barrier island community. The game is targeted at undergraduates in hazard management or urban planning programs, but is suitable for any interested students or lay people at the high school level or above. Through role-based negotiation of the use of limited resources to deal with problems in the aftermath of extreme events affecting the town, players learn lessons about natural hazards, sustainability, complex systems, urban growth, and decision-making in the real world. This learning experience is widely praised by those who have experienced it.
FY2008 Accomplishments:
The NCAR P.I. for this effort, Seth McGinnis, continued to provide maintenance support for the game. He presented it to the National Science Teachers Association at their regional meeting in Denver in November 2008, where it was received very positively. He also worked with collaborators at the University of Maryland, University College, on an effort to port the game from Java to Flash, making it even more accessible to the user community.
FY2009 Plans:
McGinnis plans to continue to provide support for the game and promote it to educators to increase its use.
Weather and Society * Integrated Studies (WAS*IS)
Weather and Society * Integrated Studies (WAS*IS) is an innovative series of workshops, education and outreach activities, and community building efforts aimed at improving the integration of weather and social science. Organized and conducted by NCAR's Societal Impacts Program (SIP), WAS*IS works to enhance the societal value and impact of the work conducted within the meteorological community. Its goal is to empower practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders in all sectors of the weather enterprise to forge new relationships, and to develop and use new tools for more effective socio-economic applications and evaluations of weather products. Five WAS*IS workshops have been held since the program began in summer 2005, creating a cadre of more than 170 persons at present who are learning social science tools and concepts to more effectively address the impacts of weather and climate on society.
FY2008 Accomplishments:
WAS*IS activities were conducted on a variety of fronts in 2008. These included:
• Conducting a summer workshop in Boulder, Colorado. Presentations are available on the website
• Establishing a new Weather and Society Discussion Group on the web
• Creating a monthly seminar series in collaboration with NOAA’s Earth System Research Lab
• Conducting an advanced workshop, “Beyond Storm-Based Warnings: Communication of Probabilistic Hazard Information” in Norman, Oklahoma
• Publishing an article about WAS*IS, “Building a Community for Integrating Meteorology and Social Science,” in the November 2007 edition of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
• Surveying those who have attended WAS*IS workshops to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and to glean new ideas for future events
FY2009 Plans:
• The SIP staff will evaluate the results of its recent survey of workshop participants. This information will be used to drive agendas for future workshops, and may serve as useful feedback to the program’s NOAA and NSF sponsors.
• Planning is underway for a summer 2009 WAS*IS workshop in Boulder
• Work will continue on the creation of a web-based compendium, providing information and resources to those in the physical and social science communities interested in engaging in interdisciplinary work