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Excerpts from the Weather and Climate syllabus

Course Outline

The length of each unit is approximate and subject to change.

Unit A: Building Blocks and Moving Parts (3 weeks) How the components of the atmosphere and ocean (mainly gases and liquids) help redistribute the energy that Earth receives from the Sun
Unit B: Vertical Transport (3 weeks) How rising air parcels produce precipitation, clouds, and optical phenomena
Unit C: Horizontal Transport (3 weeks) How the horizontal contrasts in temperature and density bring about movement of air on the local, synoptic, and global scales.
Unit D: Closer up and Farther away (5 weeks) How to refine our coarse-grained models to handle localized phenomena (thunderstorms, tornadoes), or patterns that vary over huge time scales (decades to eons)

Expectations and Grading Policy

Although this course holds you responsible for the same content as the lab-based meteorology course without the benefit of a separate lab period, you should expect a high degree of interaction with your instructor and your classmates in our twice-weekly meetings. At key points in each lecture we will pause to let you reflect on your understanding through verbal or written responses.
To be prepared for in-class activities and written responses, you should always read the textbook chapter that goes with the topic of the class. Give special attention to the text and illustrations that are emphasized in the PowerPoint presentations (available on our LMS).
Active, productive participation in each class and respect for the learning environment are expected of everyone. The host of the online meeting reserves the right to mute anyone whose background environment is too noisy.
As any teacher can tell you, the best way to check whether you understand something is to try explaining it. To give you practice in the skill of communicating science, you will be expected to contribute to our Piazza discussions forum, at least three posts for each unit. Two of these posts must be in response to a classmate's question, so as to approximate the sense of community that we would have enjoyed with on-campus meetings. Please be respectful of your classmates in every reply. If you disagree with someone's analysis, frame your reply as a criticism of the idea, not the person.
There will be four opportunities to approach real problems in weather as a meteorologist would. These inquiries pose questions that require the organization and analysis of data to answer. Inquiries are collaborative, and significant time will be given to complete them. However, a penalty of one letter grade per weekday will apply to any inquiry products submitted after the due date.
There will be three midterm exams, one for each unit up to Chapter 9. The fourth exam (covering the remaining chapters) will take place according to the official final exam schedule.
The case study is a written discussion of a current weather event (an event that occurs sometime this semester). We will be talking about current weather events extensively in this course, and by the time you get to the second half of the semester you will be able to put together a case study yourself. Specific guidelines and the due date for the case study will be posted to our LMS.

By the end of the semester, you can earn up to 1000 points as follows.

Inquiries 1, 3, and 4: 150 points
Inquiry 2: 100 points
Discussion board posts: 100 points
Midterm exams: 300 points
Final exam: 150 points
Case study of a recent weather event: 200 points

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