Atmospheric Sciences 171
Course Information for Spring, 2000
Instructor: Dr. David Flittner (PAS 566D, 626-7261, flittner@atmo.arizona.edu): Office Hours: 1-2 p.m. MWF, or by appointment.
Teaching Assistant: Wendy Thomas
Course Synopsis: A variety of basic principles from physical science will be reviewed and used to better understand common weather and atmospheric phenomena, including: seasons; air motions and wind patterns; hurricanes; fronts; humidity; cloud types and identification; precipitation; greenhouse effect and global warming; The Ozone Hole; thunderstorms & lightning; tornadoes.
Class Hours: MWF 8:00 - 8:50 a.m. Room: Chemistry and Biological Sciences (CBS) 218
Required Text: Essentials of Meteorology (1998) by C. Donald Ahrens
Reading: In addition to regular reading in the text, short problems or written assignments may be given during the course. Much of the interesting (and some of the not-so-interesting) material in the textbook will not be covered in class. Unless you hear otherwise, you will be responsible for this material, and you are, of course, free to ask questions about it during the lectures, or during office hours.
Web Page: A web page will be updated regularly during the semester, and will include additional sources of information relating to topics covered in class. The address is: www.atmo.arizona.edu/spring00/ATMO171-flittner/atmo171_main.html.
Science Literacy: While there is no writing requirement for this course, there is a science literacy requirement. All this means is that we will use scientific notation for writing numbers (especially rather large ones) and specify the units of the quantities referred to, i.e. millibars for pressure and degrees Fahrenheit for temperature.
Exams: A large part of your grade (66%) will be based on seven quizzes given every 2 weeks (typically a Wednesday) during the semester. The quizzes will contain a mixture of multiple choice, short answer, and discussion-type questions. Most of the questions will be over material covered since the preceding quiz, but some questions may involve basic concepts from earlier in the semester. There may also be questions covering material in the assigned reading that wasn't covered in class. No makeup quizzes will be given. Please bring a picture ID with you on quiz days.
Quiz Dates: Jan. 26, Feb. 9, Feb. 23, Mar. 8, Mar. 29, Apr. 12, and Apr. 26.
Final Exam: To be held on Wednesday, May 10, from 8:00 - 10:00 a.m. in CBS 218, no exceptions. The final exam will contain about 50 questions that cover the entire course. The questions will be similar to those given on the quizzes.
Extra Credit: Optional assignments will be given for extra credit at various times during the course. Successful completion of these assignments on time will allow you to increase your final grade by a maximum of 5%.
Grading:
(1) If you take all 7 quizzes, your lowest quiz score will be dropped. If your average grade on your 6 highest quizzes is 90.0% or more, you don't have to take the final exam.(2) If you don't meet the requirement above, then your six highest quiz scores will be averaged together. This score will count for 2/3 of your final grade and the final exam will count as 1/3 of your final grade. Any extra credit will be added to this total.
Letter grades are determined using the following scale: