Announcements:

Thursday, December 13:

Final class grades, including the final exam, are posted under the Grades link. I will wait until Monday to send in official grades, so if you see a mistake please let me know ASAP. I wish you all a nice winter break.

Monday, December 3:

Class grades, not including the final exam, are posted under the Grades link. Explanation of some of the columns on the grade sheet:
"Hwave" is your homework average = (sum of 5 homeworks)/4
"ClassAve" is your weighted class average (20% Hwave, 20% Term + termEC, and 20% each exam)
"Grade" is the letter grade you will get if you do not take the final exam
"To Raise Grade" is what you need to score on the final exam to raise your letter grade by one letter.
If you understand your grade and have no interest in taking the final exam, then you do not need to come to class on the last day, unless you want to pick up graded work. If you are considering taking the final exam, you should come to class on the last day as I will discuss how to prepare for the final exam. Sorry, I forgot to mention that the grade scale is A - 89% ; B - 77% ; C - 65% ; D - 50%

Tuesday, November 27:

The term papers are finally graded. Most of you did very well. The averaage was about 90. The grades are posted under the Grades link.

Wednesday, October 31:

Grades for exam 2 are posted under the Grades link. The average on the exam was 75.

Tuesday, October 30:

Homework 4 is now due on Tuesday, November 6. I will take questions about the homework before class on Thursday, November 1.

Thursday, October 25:

All of the 500 mb maps needed to complete homework 4 are now available.

Tuesday, October 16:

The due date for homework 3 has been pushed back one week. It is now due the day of the second exam, Thursday, October 25.
Homework #4 is available under the homework link. The homework is about 500 mb map analysis and weather forecasting. The homework is due one week after the exam on Thursday, November 1, so as not to interfere with homework 3 and the exam. However, we have covered the material necessary to complete the homework and it would be helpful to at least read over the homework as it will help you to better understand 500 mb map analysis, which is included on exam 2.

Monday, October 15:

As of now, only 35 students uploaded term papers to turnitin.com. This is a required and important part of the assignment. I reset the deadline to tomorrow, Tuesday, October 16. After that time, the assignment will be considered late. Your paper will not be graded or returned to you unless it has been submitted to turnitin.com. The instructions for submitting your papers to turnitin.com are listed at the bottom of the term paper instructions.

Wednesday, October 10:

A printed copy of your term paper is due in class tomorrow. Please remember that you also are required to upload a copy of the same paper to turnitin.com by the end of the day on Friday. The instructions for submitting your papers to turnitin.com are listed at the bottom of the term paper instructions.

Wednesday, October 3:

Homework #3 is available under the homework link. It is due on October 18. Please do not be scared by the number of pages as much of the space is blank stability tables. I will accept questions about the homework in class before each lecture. Also, remember that a printed copy of your term paper is due in class next week on Thursday, October 11. In addition you are required to submit an electronic version of the same paper to turnitin.com. The instructions for submitting your papers to turnitin.com are listed at the bottom of the term paper instructions.

Monday, September 24:

Grades for exam 1 are posted under the Grades link. The average on the exam was 75.

Friday, September 14:

I placed a topic outline for the questions contained in your exam 1 under the Old Exams link.

Thursday, September 6:

Homework #2 has been posted under the homework link. It is the in class on the day of the first exam, September 20.

Tuesday, September 4:

Webnames based on homework 1 have been placed under the grades link. Please make sure you can find your class webname. If you forgot your webname or wish to change your webname, please send an email to Dr. Ward. Note there are 4 people registered for the class who did not complete homework 1.

Tuesday, August 21:

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/fall12/atmo336/home.html

Course Hours/Location:

Tuesday and Thursday   9:30 - 10:45  
Saguaro Hall (Former FCS Building), Room 114

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: TBD or by appointment.

Teaching Assistants:

Theresa Foley
Email: foley@atmo.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 510
Office Hours: TBD or by appointment.

Gouri Prabhakar
Email: prabhakar@atmo.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 522
Office Hours: TBD or by appointment.

Class Notes / Important Dates:

There is no textbook for this course. Lectures will be based on the reading material posted under the Lectures Link and additional material that will be distributed during lectrues throughout the semester. I expect that each student read over the relevant reading material before the lecture is presented in class. This is important because the you will be famaliar with what I discuss in lecture and better able to understand it.

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 during the second week of class).

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). The term paper and perhaps some of the homework assignments will be filtered through Turnitin.

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 28. Please read over the assignment sometime before coming to class on August 28.

The term paper will account for 20% of your final class grade. It is due on March 7, which is just before spring break and 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. As an incentive to begin early, there is an optional assignment, which is due on September 6, in which I ask you to specify your topic and perhaps provide a preliminary list of references. You can earn up to 10% extra credit on your term paper for this assignment. Information is available under the homework link .

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 Wednesday, December 12 from 10:30 - 12:30 in the regular classroom, Saguaro Hall, room 114.

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%).