Introductory Atmospheric Sciences at a Liberal Arts University (1995–99)

Abstract

Ulanski surveyed various atmospheric sciences faculty, on a national basis, to define the extent to which specific liberal arts approaches and techniques were used in their classes. This study used Ulanski's questionnaire to investigate the students' perceptions of those same questions. The student survey was conducted for eight semesters to gather a sufficient dataset for comparison with Ulanski's results. Based upon the results from the students, as compared to the faculty, the liberal arts teaching approaches Ulanski addressed are quite well covered in the Creighton atmospheric sciences classes, or within other clearly identified portions of the Creighton curriculum. In addition, the students feel they are given explicitly stated objectives and that the Creighton faculty incorporate goal?oriented instruction in attaining those goals. There is a strong sense among the students that cross?disciplinary and historical developments are an integral part of the Creighton approach. Overall, Creighton students feel quite strongly that the teaching tools used are innovative.