Read more about this past session...
Period: June 2016
Facilitators:
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Tsvetomir Ross-Lazarov |
Brad Snyder EC/Meteorological Service of Canada |
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Brad describes the background for this session:
"After attending the CALMet meeting in Korea I was inspired by the effectiveness of using games as a learning tool. Where I work, the weather centre organises twice annual "Change of Season Workshops" to prepare forecasters for the winter and for the summer. My role used to be in organising these workshops; now I tend to act more as an adviser. A lot of time and resources go into these workshops but is it effective learning? We strive to increase the quality of training each year. Often though, we find that forecasters forget or they do not apply what they have learned. The latter is very difficult to monitor and correct. As for the former, games may offer a way to improve learner retention. For the workshop held last fall we introduced the Jeopardy! game. Those familiar with the TV game show will know that contestants are presented with a board full of questions, each with a money value. Correct answers are phrased as questions.Although we did not use this site, it offers an idea of how the game would appear: http://www.superteachertools.us/jeopardyx/ Each speaker provided 5 questions and answers (related to the material they would present) to the organiser prior to the workshop. Toward the end of the workshop, the game was introduced and teams of two students participated. The team accumulating the most points at the end received a modest prize. It was clear that there was far more engagement from staff during this workshop as compared to previous years. Moreover, spacing out the testing to a period where staff may be getting tired also forced them to think back to what was presented. We believe we improved learner retention and equally important, staff interest and engagement and we plan to run the game again this spring." |