The project focuses on the modernization and upgrading of existing instrumentation with construction of computer links for a sixty-five foot instructional and research vessel on Seneca Lake. The two courses most affected are Physical Oceanography and Meteorology. These two courses are the most quantitatively offered in the department, and deal with numerous aspects of fluid dynamics. The field/laboratory components of both courses take the mathematics and physics into the real world of weather and water. The institution's research vessel enables students to get hands-on shipboard experience with the techniques and processes studied in class. Laboratory experiences that demonstrate instruments and allow the interpretation of archived data have to be converted into ones that provide for the analysis and interpretation of relevant data. Acquisition of this equipment is giving students an experience more like that of the practicing professional scientist.
