Announcements:

Monday, May 12:

Final Class Grades including the final exam are posted. Please make sure your grade is correct. I will wait until Wednesday morning before submitting official grades, so if there is a problem please let me know ASAP. I wish you all a nice summer break.

Monday, May 5:

Pre-final Grades are posted. Explanations for the column headings in the gradesheet are provided below the table. If have decided not to take the final exam, then you do not need to attend class this week unless you would like to pick up graded material or listen to the review for the final exam. I will discuss the format for the final exam today. We will review for the final exam today and Wednesday. The final exam for this class is Friday, May 9 from 1 - 3 PM in the regular class room.

Friday, May 2:

Grades for homework 5 are posted. The homework average and class average calculations are updated to include homework 5. Module 3 exam is not graded yet.

Friday, April 25:

Extra Credit Opportunity. Students who come to class next Friday, May 2, and fill out the course evaluation form will get 5 points added to their highest exam score.

Thursday, April 17:

Instructions for Homework #5 - Global Warming Essay are posted under the homework link. It is due in class on Monday, April 28. The assignment will be discussed in class on Friday.

Monday, April 7:

Most of the homework 4 grades have been posted, except for some late submissions. There were a few more students who said they were going to turn in a late homework 4, so the graded homeworks will not be returned to you until later this week. If you are planning on submitting a late homework 4, I suggest you do so ASAP.

The grade sheet has a couple of new columns. HWave is your current homework average, which is the sum of your homework grades divided by 310 possible points. There will be one more homework worth 100 points. ClassAve is your current weighted class average. The weighting is 20% homework, 20% term paper (+ TermEC), and 60% exams, which right now is the average of your two exam scores. Your exam average can still change a lot depending on how you do on exam 3 and whether or not you take the final exam. The letter grade scale has not been set, but this allows you to see where you stand compared with the rest of the class.

Wednesday, March 26:

My office hours for Thursday, March 27 are cancelled. If possible, I will remain in the classroom after class on Friday (from 1 to 2 PM) to answer questions. Usually the classroom is open during this time, however, if someone else has reserved the room, we will be unable to stay.

Monday, March 24:

Today is the last day to upload your term paper to turnitin.com without receiving a late penalty. The deadline on turnitin.com has been extened until the end of this week, however, anything submitted after today will receive a late penalty. Please see previous announcement for details. You will not receive a grade for your term paper until you upload it to turnitin.com.

Wednesday, March 19:

Grades for the term paper are posted. If your grade shows as an X, it means that you submitted a paper copy to me, but have not uploaded the paper to turnitin.com. The instructions for doing this are located at the bottom of the homework page. If you have a 0 (zero), it means that I do not have a paper copy for you.

Monday, March 17:

There are students who turned in a paper copy of the term paper, but have not submitted a copy to turnitin.com. You must do this before you will be given a grade for your paper. I have extended the deadline on turnitin until Friday, March 21.

Monday, March 10:

There will be no class on Friday, March 14.

Monday, March 3:

Homework #4 is available under the homework link. It is due in class on March 31, which is the beginning of the second week after spring break. I will take questions in class about the homework.

Monday, March 3:

Grades are posted for homework #3. There is one graded homework that does not have a name on it.

Wednesday, February 26:

I have posted the instructions for how to upload a copy of your finished term paper to turnitin.com at the bottom of the Homework Page. Remember that this is part of the term paper assignment and it must be completed before your paper will be graded. You may want to try to register for the class on turnitin before you are ready to submit your term paper just to make sure there are no problems.

Monday, February 17:

For question 11 of homework 3, you are asked to compute the dew point temperature in Tucson under the condition that the air temperature is 105 F and the RH is 15%. The tables of saturation mixing ratio that I have given you only go up to temperatures of 100 F. I have now added values for temperatures up to 110 F in the saturation mixing ratio table that is linked on the homework page under the instructions for homework 3.

Friday, February 14:

I have placed a topic breakdown for the first exam under the Old Exams link.

Thursday, February 6:

Homework #3 is available under the homework link. It is due in class on February 19, which is the day of the first exam. I will take questions in class about the homework. Also, all of the maps necessary to complete homework #2 are now available.

Tuesday, January 28:

Homework #2 500 mb map analysis is available under the homework link. I will take questions in class about the homework.

Thursday, January 23:

The first grade roster is posted. If you completed homework #1, please make sure you can find your classID. If you forgot your ID or want to change it, please send me an email. As of 3 PM, there are 22 students registered for the class who did not complete homework #1.

Wednesday, January 15:

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/spring14/atmo336/home.html

Course Hours/Location:

Monday, Wednesday, & Friday   12:00 - 12:50  
ILC Building, Room 140.

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: Thursdays 1PM - 2PM or by appointment.

Teaching Assistants:

Gina Medici
Email: gmedi1@email.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 526
Office Hours: TBD or by appointment.

Mason Quick
Email: mgquick@atmo.arizona.edu
Office: Physics and Atmospheric Sciences (PAS) Building, Room 518
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.

Academic Integrity:

The University of Arizona's Code of Academic Integrity, Code of Conduct, and Student Code of Conduct will be strictly followed. All students are responsible for knowing the codes and abiding by them. Please see Academic Integrity Policies for University of Arizona Students.

Accessibility and Accomodations:

It is the University's goal that learning experiences be as accessible as possible. If you anticipate or experience physical or academic barriers based on disability, please let me know immediately so that we can discuss options. You are also welcome to contact Disability Resources (520-621-3268) to establish reasonable accommodations.

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 Friday, January 24. Please read over the assignment sometime before coming to class on January 24.

The term paper will account for 20% of your final class grade. It is due on or before March 12, 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 5, in which I ask you to specify your topic and provide a preliminary list of references. You can earn up to 5% 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 9 from 1:00 - 3:00 in the regular classroom, ILC 140.

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%).