Announcements:

Thursday, December 18:
Final grades are posted under the grades link. You may have to do a (shift) reload with your web browser to see the latest posting, but it is there. If you have any questions about the grading, especially if you think I made an error in your grade, please contact me via email ASAP as I will not be available during my office hours tomorrow. I will submit the official grades tomorrow. I wish you all a nice break!

Monday, December 8:
All grades, without the final exam, are posted under the grades link. If you have any questions about the grading, how the optional final exam will affect your grade, or if you just want to pick up your graded work, please come to class tomorrow. If you are considering taking the final exam see announcement below this one.

Wednesday, December 3:
If you think you may take the final exam, I suggest that you gather your graded exam 1 and exam 2 and bring them to the last day of class on Tuesday, December 9. The previous exams will be good study guides for the final. You may want to come to class prepared to ask questions about material covered on past exams. I will provide more details on the format of the final and suggest how to prepare for it in class on December 9.

Thursday, November 6:
There was a mistake in grading some versions of the exam. If your table for multiple choice questions 3-6 had a parcel dew point temperature of 8 C at the lowest elevation (0 meters), then the answer to #5 should be (d). It was incorrectly graded as (c). For this reason and because I no longer know who took that version of the exam, I added 2 points to everyone's exam 2 grade. In addition, if you had that version of the exam and you marked (d) as your answer for question #5, I will give you 2 more points if you show that to me. Please give me back those exams either in class or office hours and I will update your grades. I apologize to those affected by my mistake.

Wednesday, November 5:
Grades are posted for exam 2 and the extra credit assignment. The possible grades for the extra credit assignment were 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, or 0%. The assignment is worth a maximum of 50 points toward your homework grade. Thus, 100%=50 points, 75%=37.5 points, 50%=25 points, and 25%=12.5 points. I computed your Homework Average (HWave) using the following formula: HWave = (HW1 + HW2 + HW3 + ExtraCredit/2)/210. The reason I divided the extra credit by 2 is because there will be 2 more homeworks worth 100 points each. If I did not do this, the extra credit will be weighted too high in porportion to the total number of homework points for the semester. For example, the way I did it, if you have a HWave of 80% and you get 80s on the last two homework assignments, your homework average will remain 80 ... if I did not do this, the homework average would drop even with 80s on the remaining homeworks.

Monday, October 20:
Homework #4 Severe Weather Paper is available under the homework link. It is due one week after exam #2 on Thursday, November 6.

Wednesday, October 15:
I placed an optional extra credit assignment under the homework link. I will talk about the assignment in class tomorrow

Friday, October 3:
Homework #3 is available via the homework link. It is due in class on Thursday, October 16.

Wednesday, September 10:
Several announcements. Grades for homework #1 are posted under the homework link. Make sure that you can find your class ID. Homework #2 is available under the homework link. It is due in class on Tuesday, September 23. A paper copy of the homework will not be distributed in class. Finally, I placed exams 1 and 2 from fall 2007 under the old exams link.

Monday, August 25:
Welcome to Atmospheric Sciences 336. Periodically check this area for announcements.

Course Objectives:

This course examines basic weather phenomena, climate variability and climate change, and their associated effects on people. The possibility and implications of human-caused changes in the climate system are also discussed.

Web page:

http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/students/courselinks/fall08/atmo336/home.html

Course Hours/Location:

Section 1: Tuesday, Thursday   9:30 - 10:45 AM  
Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS), Room 101.

Section 2: Tuesday, Thursday   12:30 - 1:45 PM  
Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS), Room 101.

Please Note: This is the course homepage and information for both section 1 and section 2 for the fall 2008 semester. Although the course content will be nearly the same for each section, I do not guarantee that they will be exactly the same. Where necessary, you will be prompted to select your specific section. You are responsible for what is covered in the section for which you are registered. Furthermore since each section will be given different exams, the final grade scale may be different for each section. Although I do not mind if you attend a lecture given for the other section (as long as there are empty seats available), you must take your exams with the section for which you are registered. If you take the exam with the wrong section without my approval, you will not receive credit for the exam.

Instructor:

Dr. Dale Ward, Research Scientist
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
Email: ward@atmo.arizona.edu (Best way to contact me)
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 566D.
Office Hours: Monday and Friday 1:00 - 2:00 P.M. or by appointment.
Phone: 626-7261 (NOT best way to contact me)

Teaching Assistant:

Mike Stovern
Email: stovern@atmo.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 526
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 12:00 - 1:30 P.M. or by appointment.
Phone: 621-6843

Class Notes / Important Dates:

There is no textbook for this course. Lectures will be based on the Lecture Pages available from the class web page and additional material that will be distributed during lectrues throughout the semester.

Important dates, such as homework deadlines, exam dates, etc., will be posted in the class calendar.

Grading:

Homework:

Homework assignments will be given periodically during the semester. These will consist of short written papers and brief problem sets.

Your homework assignments will be graded on the quality and clarity of your English as well as their content. No cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty, or plagiarism will be tolerated.

All homework assignments assigned during class will also be available on the class web page. Homework assignments turned in late will incur a grade reduction of 10% per day. The sum total of all homework accounts for 25% of your final grade. Individual homework assignments may not be weighted equally in determining your overall class homework grade.

Exams:

There will be 3 in-class exams and a final exam. Exam grades account for 75% of your final grade. Each in-class exam will account for 25% of your final grade. The exams will consist of a mixture of multiple choice and short answer questions.

Questions from previous exams will be made available on the class web pages.

The final exam is optional. If you decide to take it, the final exam grade replaces the lowest of the grades of your previous exams (even if it is lower). Thus, if you do poorly on one exam or miss one exam, you can make it up by taking the final. Each of you will be informed of your class grade before the final. If you have an "A" or are pleased with your grade, you should not take the final exam. The final exam is comprehensive. The final exam grade cannot be used to replace your homework grade, so do your homework and turn it in on time.

Section 1: Final exam is Tuesday, December 16 from 8:00 - 10:00
Section 2: Final exam is Thursday, December 18 from 11:00 - 1:00

Exam Policy:

You are expected to read the relevant material from the class notes. Exams will be taken from both the lecture material (including web pages and links therein) and the reading assignments.

Please contact the instructor (preferrably via e-mail) as soon as possible if you are unable to be in class for an exam. Assuming an acceptable excuse, a make-up exam will be arranged with sufficient proof. No make-up exam will be given unless you notify the instructor BEFORE missing the exam in class. In general, I would prefer make-up exams to be taken before the exam is given in class.

Grade Scale:

Your final grade will be curved and therefore depends on everybody else's grades. However, the grade scale will not be any more difficult than A(90%); B(80%); C(70%); D(60%).


Dale Ward