RWater - A Novel Cyber-enabled Data-driven Educational Tool for Interpreting and Modeling Hydrologic Processes

Abstract:

Explaining the complex cause-and-effect relationships in hydrologic cycle can often be challenging in a classroom with the use of traditional teaching approaches. With the availability of observed rainfall, streamflow and other hydrology data on the internet, it is possible to provide the necessary tools to students to explore these relationships and enhance their learning experience. From this perspective, a new online educational tool, called RWater, is developed using Purdue University’s HUBzero technology. RWater’s unique features include: (i) its accessibility including the R software from any java supported web browser; (ii) no installation of any software on user’s computer; (iii) all the work and resulting data are stored in user’s working directory on RWater server; and (iv) no prior programming experience with R software is necessary. In its current version, RWater can dynamically extract streamflow data from any USGS gaging station without any need for post-processing for use in the educational modules. By following data-driven modules, students can write small scripts in R and thereby create visualizations to identify the effect of rainfall distribution and watershed characteristics on runoff generation, investigate the impacts of landuse and climate change on streamflow, and explore the changes in extreme hydrologic events in actual locations. Each module contains relevant definitions, instructions on data extraction and coding, as well as conceptual questions based on the possible analyses which the students would perform. In order to assess its suitability in classroom implementation, and to evaluate users’ perception over its utility, the current version of RWater has been tested with three different groups: (i) high school students, (ii) middle and high school teachers; and (iii) upper undergraduate/graduate students. The survey results from these trials suggest that the RWater has potential to improve students’ understanding on various relationships in hydrologic cycle, leading towards effective dissemination of hydrology education ranging from K-12 to the graduate level. RWater is a publicly available for use at: https://mygeohub.org/tools/rwater.