Natural Sciences 101 Sect. 31
Course Information for Fall
2007
In
this course we will use basic principles from physical science to
better
understand a variety of common weather and atmospheric phenomena
including:
general characteristics of the atmosphere; basic weather measurements
and
weather maps; air pollution; solar radiation, energy transport and the
greenhouse effect; climate change; humidity; cloud types and
identification;
formation of precipitation; air motions and wind patterns; fronts;
thunderstorms,
tornadoes, and lightning; hurricanes.
Class Hours: T
Th
Text: Essentials of Meteorology 5th ed. (3rd & 4th eds. are also acceptable) by C. Donald Ahrens
(available at the ASUA Bookstore; print and electronic versions of the text are also
available
from the publisher at www.ichapters.net)
Class Notes (packet of photocopies available at the ASUA Bookstore)
Instructor:
Charles Weidman (PAS 588, 621-2593, weidman@atmo.arizona.edu)
Office Hours: Mon.,
Tue., Wed. mornings
Class webpage:
www.atmo.arizona.edu (follow links to the web page for this class)
Teaching Assistants: to be
determined
Lectures: Regular,
frequent attendance is
encouraged. There may be occasional,
unannounced, activities in class that cannot be made up (these will
generally
be counted as extra credit). Please
feel free to ask questions during class.
An occasional word with your neighbor is also all right, but an
extended
conversation in a class this size quickly becomes disruptive.
Student
Responsibilities: You are
expected to follow the University of Arizona Code
of
Academic Integrity and to
treat fellow students, teaching assistants, and the instructor with
courtesy
and respect. Participate actively
in the learning process by reading textbook assignments as they are
given,
thinking about what you are writing as you take notes in class,
completing and
turning in assignments on time, and asking questions about confusing
class or
textbook material.
Quizzes: A
large part of your grade will be based
on four quizzes given 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,
some
questions may test you on basic concepts from earlier in the semester. There may also be questions covering
material in the textbook that wasn't covered in class.
Makeup quizzes are given only in special
circumstances and the makeup quiz must be taken before graded quizzes
are
returned in class. Completion of a
short supplementary assignment may be required in order to have the
right to
take a make up quiz. Please bring a
picture ID with you on quiz days.
Quiz Dates: Sep. 6 (Practice), Sep. 20, Oct. 11, Nov. 1, & Nov. 29. These are all Thursdays.
Review sessions will be scheduled late Tuesday
and Wednesday afternoon before each quiz. Copies of quizzes and the
final exam from a
previous, similar, course will be available for purchase from the
instructor or
in the Atmospheric Sciences Dept. Office (PAS 542) for $2.50.
Writing Assignments:
A variety of types of required written
work will be assigned during class.
Some writing assignments may include data analysis and simple
mathematical calculations.
In some cases you will be able to revise and
resubmit your
work after having received feedback from the instructor.
The percentage grade that you receive on
the entire body of written work will have the same weight as one quiz
grade.
Final Exam: Scheduled
for Tue., Dec. 11 from
Extra Credit:
There will be many opportunities for
earning extra credit during the semester (probably both in-class and
take-home
assignments).
Grading: This is
a little bit complicated; there are two possibilities:
(1) If your average grade (all 4 quizzes and your
writing
assignments grade) plus extra credit is 90.0% or more, you won't have
to take
the final exam. [Note: 89.9% is not the same as 90.0%]
(2) If you don't meet the requirement above, the
lowest quiz
score is dropped. Your three
highest quiz scores and the writing assignments grade will be averaged
together
and extra credit will be added;
The average score determined in (2) above and your
final
exam score will then be used to determine your final grade. If you do well on the final exam, it
will count as 40% of your grade. If
you don't do so well, the final exam will count 20%.
Letter grades are determined using the following
scale:
A: 90.0% or more
B:
80.0% to 89.9% C:
70.0% to 79.9% D:
60.0% to 69.9%
E: less than 60.0%