Syllabus for MT206S98

Introduction to Meteorology

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mt206/obs/syl_mt206.html

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Credits: 3

Meeting: MWF, 2-3PM

125 Kildee Auditorium

Instructor and Teaching Assistant

Doug Yarger and Paul S. Castleberry

doug@iastate.edu and paulca@iastate.edu

3011 and 3134 Agronomy Hall

294-9872

Text

Meteorology Today

5th Edition

C. Donald Ahrens

West Publishing Company - Minneapolis/St. Paul

All other course materials are available via Internet.

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Course Philosophy

This is a course in introductory meteorology which is intended to meet the

needs of students who are taking this course to meet a science requirement.

In this course you will have many opportunities to test your understanding

of meteorology principles. Because learning from mistakes is an important

part of the learning process you will be given numerous opportunities to try

and fail without penalty. In order for us to be able to interact with some

300 students and to provide timely and accurate feedback we will be using

the Internet to communicate with you. Many of these web-based activities

that you will be assigned have been especially designed for this course by

faculty and graduate students in other departments and are the subject of

ongoing studies to determine if they are effective in improving science

learning. We very much need and appreciate your feedback concerning them.

The grading in this course has been weighted to reflect my perceptions of

the most important outcomes for you in this course. Although you are

expected to read the text the total course grade is heavily based on

activities you can do outside of class (60%). To assist you in preparing for

the hour examinations we will have collections of old test questions

available for you that you can access from the computer. However, materials

on the hour examinations will also be based on class discussions and class

assignments.

So what are the outcomes that I think are important? First, I want you to

learn to think like a meteorologist (no, that isn't just making wild guesses

no matter what comedians say). This means you will need to have

opportunities to do what meteorologists do, forecast. Before you panic, we

have done this for several years now and this is always the most popular

part of the course according to student course evaluations. Next I want you

to learn to think like scientists in general think. To help accomplish this

you will be given opportunities to learn how to solve problems. We will try

very hard to make the problems realistic and thus they may have more than

one right answer. As you well know by now, life is full of problems. The

approach you will learn is intended to serve you in many life situations.

Finally I want you to gain a better understanding of our physical world. I

will try to create circumstances where you will seek understanding because

you are curious rather than because an exam is eminent (although we will

have a few of these also). In the grading scheme these factors are reflected

in 60% of the course evaluation (everything but the in-class activities and

the actual examinations).

Many of the course materials are only available from the Internet. To

facilitate the management of web-based course materials we will use

ClassNet, software designed at Iowa State University for this purpose. We

will demonstrate the use of this software in class, however, we will have a

help room (1010 Agronomy) staffed from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday to

provide assistance on any computer issue related to this course. This room

also has several computers which you are welcome to use during any of the

open hours.

The details of a forecast exercise will be covered in another section but

some general comments now may help reassure you that this is something that

each of you can do. Most students in previous classes were as apprehensive

as you may be at this stage in the course but final class evaluations always

have shown this activity to be the most popular part of the course. We will

begin this part Wednesday, January 14, 1998. Paul will often give you his

best judgment concerning many of the answers so if you listen to him you

should do very well. The way we score will be to give you 3 points for a

correct answer, 1 point for trying, and no points if you don't participate.

There will be over 80 forecast opportunities relating to current weather. We

will select your best 20 scores and count these. We encourage you to submit

as many forecasts as possible.

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Schedule of Topics

(These are likely to be modified during the semester)

* It is necessary to assign computer activities for nearly every class

period early in the course to coordinate with the subject matter. We will

attempt to have the simulation activities accessible early to allow students

as much flexibility as possible for working on these assignments.

Date Theory (Class) Forecast Other Assignments Other Assignment

Assignments Due Dates

* Course Overview 1. Enroll in

* Weather in the ClassNet

None

Jan 12 news Assigned 2. Problem Set January 16, 1998

* Expectations #1

* The COMPUTER! yet (map

symbols)

Temperature

forecasts

(must do

two days

between Jan

15-19, so

Jan * Forecasting Hints to do the

14 * Review ClassNet 15th the January 14-18,

* Weather Intuition submission 1998

must be the

14th and to

do the 19th

must submit

the

18th)

Chapter 1- Our

Atmosphere- What a

Bummer! 1st simulation RadiationSim

Jan 16 simple ideas, gases, (RadiationSim Part I due by

pressure Part I) 11:59 P.M. on

(demonstrate January 23, 1998

Radiation Sim)

Jan 19 University Holiday

Chapter 2- Energy-

Part I (Temperature,

Heat and Energy) regular 1st simulation RadiationSim

Jan 21 different types of forecast (RadiationSim Part II due by

energies, exercise Part II) 11:59 P.M. on

heat capacities, January 23, 1998

etc.