Announcements:

Monday, May 7:

Class grades including the final exam are now posted under the Grades Link. Explanation of columns. HWave is your homework average, which was calculated by summing your homework scores and dividing by 400. Term Ex is the optional extra credit assignment where you provided an outline of your term paper topic. Paper is the term paper grade. The grade scale for the class average is A > 89, B > 78, C > 67, and D > 56. If you did not take the final exam, your class average and grade did not change. If you took the final exam, the score was used to replace your lowest exam score (and half of your next lowest exam score if to your benefit). Please let me know if there are any mistakes. I will wait until Wednesday to submit official grades. I wish you all a nice summer.

Monday, April 30:

Class grades are now posted under the Grades Link. Explanation of columns. HWave is your homework average, which was calculated by summing your homework scores and dividing by 400. Term Ex is the optional extra credit assignment where you provided an outline of your term paper topic. Paper is the term paper grade. Class average is determined by equally weighting HWave, (Term Ex + Paper), Exam 1, Exam 2, and Exam 3. The grade scale for the class average is A > 89, B > 78, C > 67, and D > 56. If you do not take the final exam "Letter" is the grade you will receive for the course. If you do take the final exam, the column to raise grade lets you know what you need to score on the final exam to raise your letter grade by one letter. At a minimum, the final exam will replace the lowest of your three in class exams, even if it is lower. If you do well on the final exam, it will also replace half of your next lowest exam score, but only if it helps your class grade. All of this was considered in calculating the score you need to raise your letter grade. If you are satisfied with your grade and have no interest in taking the final exam, then you do not need to attend class this week.

Friday, April 13:

Homework 5 is available via the homework link. I discussed the assignment in class. If you missed the discussion, please be sure to read the instructions carefully before starting your paper. This will be the last homework assignment of the semester. It is due in class on Monday, April 23.

Wednesday, April 4:

Grades for homework 4 are posted under the Grades Link. The column "HWave" is your current homework average = (sum homework scores)/310. The column "ClassAve" was computed using the following weighting (20% homework average, 20% term paper plus term paper extra credit, 60% exam average based on two exams). The reason I did it that way is because the final weighting will be 20/20/60 (homework/term paper/exams). There is one more homework and one more exam before the final. If you get your homework average on the last homework and your exam avarage on the last exam, your class average will not change.

Wednesday, March 21:

The term papers will be returned on Friday. Many of the papers were very good. There are 3 students who turned in paper copies of the term paper, but did not submit to turnitin.com. Those students will need to email a copy of their term paper to me so that I can submit it late and will not be awarded a grade until this is done.

Thursday, March 8:

There is NO CLASS Friday, March 9

Remember you are required to upload a copy of your term paper to turnitin.com by the end of the day Friday, March 9. There are still 20 students who turned in term papers in class that have not logged in to turnitin.com. Instructions for uploading Term paper

Thursday, February 23:

A few announcements.

• Homework 3 is graded. Scores are posted under the Grades Link.
• Homework 4 is posted. It due the Friday after spring break.
• Finally, do not forget that the Term paper is due in class on Wednesday, March 7. It is worth 20% of your final class grade.

Wednesday, February 14:

The answers to the multiple choice questions for exam 1 spring 2011 are now posted under the Old Exams Link

Thursday, February 9:

I placed a file that gives you the topic breakdown for the questions on exam 1 under the Old Exams Link

Monday, January 30:

I placed Homework 3 under the homework link. It is due on Monday, February 13. We have covered the material necessary to answer questions 1 - 8, so you can get started with those if you wish. I will take questions about the homework problems in class.

Friday, January 27:

All of the 500 mb maps required to complete homework 2 are now available.

Monday, January 23:

I have posted the Grades for homework 1. Please make sure you can find the class ID you selected. If you forgot your ID or would like to change it, please send me an email about it. There are 5 students currently registered for the class who did not submit homework #1. Please do it ASAP.

Thursday, January 19:

I have posted Homework 2. Please read it over. You know enough to get started on it. I will take questions on the homework next week in class.

Wednesday, January 18:

I have changed the reading material and lecture topic for Friday's class. I decided to cover one more page on 500 mb maps. Please read it over before class. I moved the material originally posted for Friday back to Monday. I apologize for this late change. I am putting together a homework on 500 mb maps and this material will be helpful in analyzing 500 mb height maps.

Wednesday, January 18:

The class has moved! The new room is Psychology 306.

Wednesday, January 11:

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/spring12/atmo336/home.html

Course Hours/Location:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday   12:00 - 12:50  
Psychology (PSYCH) Building, Room 306

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 Assistant:

Theresa Foley
Email: foley@atmo.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 588
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 after the first 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 Wednesday, January 18. Please read over the assignment sometime before coming to class on January 18.

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 February 1, in which I ask you to specify your topic and 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 Friday, May 4 from 3:30 - 5:30 in the regular classroom, PSYCH 306.

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%).