An in-class case study is presented for use in a liberal arts core extreme weather course, designed to foster science literacy, appreciation, and critical thinking skills in nonscience majors. Students are ultimately shown the critical importance of the physical sciences in their daily lives and encouraged to consider STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) related careers. The focal weather event is a severe, tornadic storms outbreak in the central plains of the United States. Students are tasked with analyzing the prestorm environment as related to severe thunderstorm potential, determining the most likely regions favored for tornado activity, and investigating the societal impacts from such an event. The activity, termed the "Virtual Storm Chase," incorporates innovative active learning based strategies for student engagement in large classroom environments, including the use of classroom technology, small group work, and real-world data-sets that generate high student excitement factor.