Teaching graduate students the art of creating computer models that track atmospheric chemical processes is nothing new; Professor Greg Carmichael has been introducing these concepts for the past three or four years in a course developed under NASA's Earth System Science Education Program. However this past spring CGRER sponsored a class named Atmospheric Chemistry and Transport, which was offered through the Departments of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering, that dispensed a more intensive dose of such modeling techniques than has previously been offered either here or at any similar institution throughout the country. Whats more, the class itself was taught using innovative technologies that linked two professors to about 15 students split between two widely separated institutions -- the University of Iowa and Iowa State. The class was taught by Chip Levy, a visiting professor from Princeton's Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, and coordinated by Bill Gutowski, a professor in the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences at Iowa State.

Weekly lectures covering the fundamentals of atmospheric chemistry and physics reached students at both institutions simultaneously via the Iowa Cable Network, through which students over a hundred miles from the lecturer could instantaneously witness and question the professor via television links. Each week students also had to complete a hands-on modeling session in the computer laboratory, taking one of a series of steps which, when assembled into a whole, constructed a realistic model of atmospheric chemistry processes.

The class was demanding and difficult for students, heavily emphasizing learning through doing. And that meant that the professors needed to remain accessible to guide students. This was accomplished through the Internet using e-mail and a class Web page as well as a computer technology called "CU-SeeMe," through which participants at ISU and the U of I could instantly see and query one another, working together on problems as if they were at the same desk. Through these technologies, a live link was established between the two campuses, and students at Iowa State were offered a class that they never would have had without these links, since ISU does not currently maintain an atmospheric chemistry faculty. While live bodies remain the optimal teachers, especially when teaching more complex or graduate studies, these technologies have the potential of expanding the university curriculum without increasing the size of the faculty at those institutions. The success of this particular effort was demonstrated by the students' accomplishments: each one managed to complete the demanding task of developing from scratch his or her own computer model which was then applied, using actual data, to examine a specific environmental problem.

This past summer CGRER bid farewell to Prashanti Srinivasan, who for the previous year had worked as a CGRER research assistant investigating the relationships between Iowa's farming practices and emissions of gases from the soil. Soil naturally emits gases such as NO, N2O, and CO2, which can cause global warming and in turn alter the atmospheric regime. In agricultural areas, these gas emissions are related to farming practices such as the addition of fertilizers and manure, how and when the soil is tilled, and the rotation of crops. Prashanti worked with computer models that related specific Iowa farming practices to the quantity and type of gases emitted, in hopes that these models might eventually lead to soil management practices that would decrease agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. The models also factor crop yield and the effects of climate change into the gas emission relationships. Prashanti is now at Stanford University, but her research is being continued by Greg Carmichael and his students who are planning to conduct a statewide comprehensive study of agricultural methods and their relationship to the emission of green house gases.