Announcements:

Friday, December 18:

Final class grades are posted under the Grades link. If you see any problems please let me know. I will submit official grades sometime on Monday. I wish all of you a great winter break.

Monday, December 7:

Class Grades before the final are posted. If you understand the letter grade you have and have no interest in taking the final, then you do not need to come to class tomorrow. You may also want to come to pick up any graded material. If you are considering taking the final, then you should come to class. I will discuss how to prepare for the final as well as answering any questions about grade determination.

Wednesday, November 25:

Grades for the term paper are posted under the grades link. Most of you did a nice job writing your term paper. I was very happy with most of the papers that I was able to read. In an attempt to fairly match the term paper grades among the different graders, I moved some of the lower grades upward. I don't like doing this because the very best papers are now closer in grade to poorly written papers, but I would rather error on giving higher rather than lower grades. So some of you were very lucky in that you probably got a higher score than you deserved.

Wednesday, November 4:

An extra credit homework assignment is now available on the homework page. It is due in class on Tuesday, November 17. I will briefly talk about the assignment before lecture tomorrow. Also grades for exam 2 are posted. I will not be able to return the exams to you until next Tuesday though.

Tuesday, October 6:

Homework 3 is now available on the homework page. It is due in two weeks on October 20. We are finished covering the material necessary to complete questions 1-4. We will talk a little more about the material in question 5 on Thursday.

Thursday, October 1:

I've placed a link below homework 2 (on the homework page) showing solutions for the homework as well as the point values for each question. Please look this over before talking to the TAs about how your homework was graded.

Tuesday, September 29:

I've placed a link to an article that defines the difference between an auction and a grandfather system for cap and trade on the Instructions page for the term paper.

Monday, September 21:

I've added some more information for Thursday's exam under the Old Exams link.

Friday, September 11:

Exam 1 from fall 2008 has been placed under the Old Exams link. You should use this as a study guide to see the format of the exam and the type of question that I ask. This year's exam will cover nearly the same material but the questions will be different.

Wednesday, September 9:

Final instructions are posted for the term paper under the homework link. It is still due October 22. I suggest that you at least start reading about cap and trade soon.

Wednesday, September 9:

Homework #2 is available via the homework link. It is due September 22. I suggest that you do not wait until September 21 to start working on the homework.

Wednesday, September 9:

Homework #1 grades are posted on homework link. Please make sure you can find your class ID. If you forgot your ID, send me an email and I will let you know what you selected. There are 7 students registered for the class who did not fill out homework #1. You will still need to do this if you want to see your grades.

Wednesday, September 2:

I realize that it is difficult for some of you to read the text and pictures that I draw under the document camera. To alleviate some of that, I have begun to place links within the reading (lecture) pages to the pictures that I draw. In addition I am going to try to type out many of the text notes that I write in class and place that in a WORD document that can be accessed from the Lectures Link for each day of class. Please send me any comments or suggestions that you may have for presenting lectures in this awful classroom.

Tuesday, 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/fall09/atmo336/home.html

Course Hours/Location:

Tuesday, Thursday   9:30 - 10:45  
Biological Sciences West (BIO W), Room 301.

Instructor:

Dr. Dale Ward, Lecturer, 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: Tuesday 11:00 - 1:45 P.M. (after class) or by appointment.
Phone: 626-7261 (NOT best way to contact me, email is preferred)

Teaching Assistants:

Jason Ninneman
Email: ninneman@atmo.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 510
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:00 - 12:00 (after class) or by appointment.
Phone: 621-2107 (shared phone, email is best way to make contact)

Gouri Prabhakar
Email: prabhakar@atmo.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 526
Office Hours: Wednesdays and Fridays 11:00 - 12:00 or by appointment.

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 20% of your final grade. Individual homework assignments may not be weighted equally in determining your overall class homework grade.

Term Paper:

A term paper on the subject of the United States adopting a carbon cap and trade policy will be required for each student. Final details concerning the content of this paper are still being worked out. Information about the paper will be available under the homework link.

The term paper will account for 20% of your final class grade. It will be due on October 22, which is just past the midway point in the semester. I strongly suggest that you begin to work on your paper long before the due date. The paper accounts for a significant portion of your final grade.

Exams:

There will be 3 in-class exams and a final exam. Exam grades account for 60% of your final grade. Each in-class exam will account for 20% 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.

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 any part of your homework or term paper grades, so do your homework and turn it in on time.

Final exam is Thursday, December 17 from 8:00 - 10:00.

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:

Final letter grades will be based on a curve, so your final grade will depend on everybody else's grades. However, the grade scale will not be any more difficult than A(90%); B(80%); C(70%); D(60%).