Optional (extra credit) assignments

Optional Assignments

Assignment	Date Assigned	Date Due	points	topic(s)
Hurricanes asst.	Thu., Apr. 23	Thu., Apr. 30	0.5	read through this material on hurricanes. Five of the questions on this assignment will appear on the Final Exam. Though due on Apr. 30, the assignment will be accepted up through Tue., May 5.
Toilet bowl flushing experiment	Thu., Apr. 16	Sun., Apr. 19	0.15	send me your observations by email, please let me know which section you're in
Forces and winds asst.	Tue., Apr. 14	Tue., Apr 21	0.5	answers
Atmospheric stability	Thu., Apr. 9	Tue., Apr. 21	0.5	read this background information, study this example
In-class asst.	Tue., Mar. 24	Tue., Mar. 24	0.2	humidity variables answers
Upper level charts asst.	Thu., Feb. 26	Thu., Mar. 5	0.5⁺	read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the supplementary material on upper level charts + see the assignment for more details concerning credit earned on this assignment
Surface Weather Map Analysis	Thu., Feb. 19	Tue. Mar 3	0.5	use this example analysis as a guide
Take home asst.	Tue., Feb. 10	Tue., Feb. 17	0.5	station model notation and surface weather maps
In class asst.	Tue., Feb. 3	Tue., Feb. 3	0.15	rate of pressure decrease with altitude vs air density answers

You can download and print the assignment in Microsoft WORD format by clicking on the appropriate link above.

If you make an honest attempt at answering all the questions, you should be able to earn full credit on each assignment. An honest effort includes having the assignment done before coming to class and turning the assignment in at the beginning of class. It is OK to work together with other students in the class, but everyone should contribute. You shouldn't just copy another student's work.

There will be a sufficient number of optional assignments for you to be able to earn at least 3 points extra credit by the end of the semester. The extra credit points are added to the average grade computed prior to the final exam.

Note: Don't be concerned if you get work back without a grade. Usually only papers with less than full credit will have a grade marked on them. Papers without a marked grade have earned full credit. An individual assignment is generally only worth a few 1/10ths of a point of extra credit (see table above). A paper with a grade of 4/5 really means you earned 0.4 out of 0.5 points extra credit. 1/10ths of a point extra credit may not seem like much. But the accumulated total at the end of the semester can have a significant effect on your grade.

Also note: The fact that you do not have any answers marked wrong does not necessarily mean you answered all the questions correctly. Frequently the grading load requires that we only grade some of the questions on the optional assignments. You should carefully compare your answers with the answers once they appear online.