Announcements:

Thursday, December 15:

Final grades including the final exam are posted under the Grades link. Please check your grade and let me know if there are any problems ASAP. I will submit offical grades to the registrar sometime on Monday, December 19. I wish you all a nice winter break.

Friday, December 9:

In case you missed them, I placed the answers to the fall 2010 multiple choice questions under the Old Exams link. I suggest that you look over both this semester's three exams and the sample exams from fall 2010 to help you prepare for the final exam.

Monday, December 5:

Class grades not including the final exam are posted. The "Grade" column indicates the grade you will get in the class if you do not take the optional final exam. If you are satisified with your grade and definitely do not want to take the final exam, then you do not need to come to class tomorrow, unless you want to pick up graded material. If you have any questions about the class grading or if you are considering taking the final exam, then you should come to class tomorrow. I will discuss the format and suggest how to prepare for the final exam in class tomorrow. It would be helpful if you would bring your graded exams 1 and 2 to class.

Monday, November 14:

The instructions for Homework #5 are available. Please read over the assignment. I will discuss the assignment either toward the end of class on Tuesday or the beginning of class on Thursday after we have finished most of the material on climate change. The assignment is due in class on Tuesday, November 29, the first class after Thanksgiving break.

Tuesday, November 8:

Grades for homeworks 3 and 4 are posted. You may pick up your graded material in class on Thursday.

Friday, November 4:

I just posted grades for the term papers and exam 2. You may pick up your graded material in class on Tuesday.

Friday, October 28:

All of the maps needed to complete homework 4 are now available. The homework is due next Thursday. You should work on the homework before class on Tuesday. We will spend some time discussing the homework at the beginning of class on Tuesday.

Friday, October 21:

I placed the topic list of the questions I have written for exam 2 under the old exams link.

Wednesday, October 19:

Homework 4 is now posted under the homework link. I will briefly talk about the homework in class tomorrow and again next Tuesday. Please read over the assignment. I think this will be an easier homework assignment than the previous two for most students.

Wednesday, October 12:

First a reminder that I will hold a homework review session tomorrow morning before class from 8:15 - 9:15 in EDUC 353.
Secondly to help clarify the position I gave in class that human caused climate change has had little influence on the occurrence of extreme weather events, please take a look at the new link I added to the class links page (link is red) and my written text that goes with it.

Thursday, October 6:

Remember that beside turning in a printed copy of your term paper in class on Tuesday, you must upload a copy of your term paper to turnitin.com as part of your assignment. This must be done by the end of the day on Friday, October 14. I corrected a typo on the assignment page that was pointed out to me by a student.

Wednesday, October 5:

Grades for homework 2 are posted. You may pick up your graded homework in class tomorrow. I am in the process of scheduling another homework review for Thursday, October 13 from 8:15 - 9:15 (before class). I requested the same room we used for the last homework review, EDUC 353. I will let you know if that changes.

Friday, September 30:

I placed Homework #3 under the homework link. We have already covered enough material to allow you to do most of the questions. I made the due date October 20 since I know many of you are working on the term paper, though I suggest that you not wait until the last minute to start the homework.

Tuesday, September 27:

Scores for exam 1 are posted under the Grades link. Exams will be returned in class on Thursday.

Monday, September 19:

I added a topic outline for the questions on exam 1 under the Old Exams Link

Monday, September 12:

I will hold a homework 2 and exam 1 question and answer session on Thursday morning, September 15, from about 8:15 - 9:15 AM, which is immediately before the regular class lecture. The session will be held in the Education Building, room 353. I will answer any questions you have on homework 2 or any of the course material.

Wednesday, September 7:

All of homework 2 is available. We have covered the material necessary to answer questions 1-6. We will cover material necessary to do questions 7 and 8 in lecture tomorrow.
Exam 1 is in two weeks. I have placed last year's exams 1 and 2 under the Old Exams link.

Friday, September 2:

I posted the first two questions for homework 2. We have covered the material necessary to answer these questions. More questions will be added to the homework next week.
There are still 7 students who are registered for the class, but have not completed homework 1. Please do it ASAP.

Wednesday, August 31:

I posted the grades for homework 1 under the homework link as of 2 PM. Please make sure you can find your chosen webname. If you forgot the webname you selected or want to change your webname, send me an email. There are 19 students who are registered for the class, but have not completed homework 1. Please do it ASAP.

Monday, August 29:

Please take some time to read over the instructions for the term paper. I will discuss it in class tomorrow.
Also note that Theresa Foley is now the TA for this class. I have placed her contact information below.

Tuesday, August 23:

I placed information about the term paper under the homework link. Please read this over sometime before class on August 30 when I will discuss the paper in class.
In addition, under the Lectures link, I have added a link to a WORD document called "Additional Reading Notes." This is something new that I will try to provide for each set of assigned reading. Hopefully you will find it useful.

Tuesday, August 23:

Welcome to Atmospheric Sciences 336. Please periodically check this area for class 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/fall11/atmo336/home.html

Course Hours/Location:

Tuesday, Thursday   9:30 - 10:45  
Education Building (EDUC), Room 211.

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: Tuesdays 11 - 12 (after class), Thursdays 1:15 - 2:15, or by appointment.

Teaching Assistants:

Theresa Foley, (see for questions about homeworks 2 and 3)
Email: foley@atmo.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 588
Office Hours: Wednesdays 10 - 11:30 or by appointment.

Simona Seastrand, (see for questions about term papers and homework 5)
Email: seastrand@atmo.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 522
Office Hours: Wednesdays 10 - 12 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. 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. Expect about four homeworks to be assigned during the semester (not including the simple homework #1, which is due by the end of the day Thursday, September 1 ).

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 (see University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity).

All homework assignments will be available on the class web page. Homework assignments turned in late will incur a grade reduction of 10% per day.

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. Information about the paper is available under the homework link . I will discuss the term paper in class on Tuesday, August 30. Please read over the assignment sometime before coming to class on August 30.

The term paper will account for 20% of your final class grade. It is due on October 11, which is approximately 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. The in-class exams are not comprehensive in that the questions concentrate on material covered since the last exam. However, it is expected that you are familiar with some of the basic concepts covered early in the semester.

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

Final exam is Thursday, December 15 from 10:30 - 12:30 in the regular classroom, EDUC 211.

Exam Policy:

You are expected to study and understand material covered in class during lecture as well as to read the relevant material from the class notes. Exam questions will be taken from both the in-class lectures and the reading material included in the class web pages.

Please contact the instructor (preferrably via e-mail) as soon as possible if for an unexpected reason you are unable to be in class for an exam. 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%).