May 13, 2005. This spring, CCNMTL worked with the Black Rock Forest Consortium on an NSF-funded project to modernize wireless access to the Forest's remote sensing stations to allow access to real-time meteorological and stream data. Using a data viewing system designed by Vista Data Vision, students in Professor Kevin Griffin's Environmental Systems course studied Black Rock Forest's watershed-based environments to analyze rainfall and its correlation to stream flow. Students reported that they appreciated "the opportunity to examine real data" because the "intense data manipulation required us to understand the data and the situation to a much greater degree than other labs."

"The students came up with interesting questions to explore on their own and definitely got a true scientific experience using the lab," notes Professor Griffin. "I'm convinced this can be an excellent teaching tool."