About Course
- Discussion 301 - Steve Jaye, Room 1449, smjaye@wisc.edu
Discussion 302 - Kris Wile, Room 1421, kswiswx@yahoo.com
Discussion 304 - Kris Wile, Room 1421, kswiswx@yahoo.com
Discussion 306 - Shaima Nasiri, Room 1015, shaima@ssec.wisc.edu
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Instructor: Dr. Steve Ackerman
Office Hours: By appointment, e-mail, and immediately afterclass.
Room 251, Space Science and Engineering Center, 1225 West Dayton St.
Phone: 263-3647 E-mail: saackerm@facstaff.wisc.edu
Book: Meteorology: Understanding the Atmosphere by Ackerman and Knox
Grading: Based on results from three tests (55 points each totalling 165 points) and homework and in-class assignments (totalling approximatley 35 points)
Homework Assignments MUSTbe turned in on time. NO EXCUSES.
Extra credit projects MUST be cleared with me first.
TAs:
Course #100 Weather and Climate
Lecture 1 - Shaima Nasiri, Room 1015, shaima@ssec.wisc.edu
Course #101 Weather and Climate
Lecture 1 - Amato Evan, Room 1311, atevan@wisc.edu
Learning about weather, the atmosphere, and the world around us can be an enjoyable experience. You should be able to apply concepts we discuss in class to the world around you. Newspaper articles and news reports almost daily discuss weather events or impending climate change. This course will help you understand these issues and provide the background to evaluate the many editorials published on these subjects.
AOS 100 and AOS 101 will have lectures together. The difference between these courses is that AOS 101 has an additional 1 credit lab. Material in the lab is supplement to the material covered in the lecture. For students taking AOS 101, 75% of your final grade is based on your lecture grade and 25% on your performance in lab. To do well in this class you will need to do well on the exams. The three exams consist of multiple choice and fill in the blank questions with two "short answer" questions. I will 'curve' the grades upward, but not downward (A > 92%, A/B -- 88-92%; B -- 82-87% etc.). Each exam is worth 55 points, plus approximately 35 points for homeworks and in-class activites. Thus, the following table is a guideline to the number of total points you'll need to get a given grade for the course. Any grades within 2 points of these cutoff values will be reviewed and a final grade will be assigned based on performance on exams and homeworks. Note, if you are missing a lot of homeworks a grade of 137 can result in a D for the semester.
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You can also do an 'extra credit project'. In previous years, most students have choosen to write a paper; however, I will accept other projects such as videos, paintings, poems, photos, etc. Be creative in choosing your extra credit project. Make sure the project relates to some topic we discussed in class. Topics in the past have ranged from the weather experiences of a firefighter to comic book heroes. I KEEP WHATEVER YOU TURN IN! Many students will do an extra credit project. Only a few will improve their grades. In the past, the extra credit project improved the grade of about 10% of the those students who turned one in. So don't count on it bringing up your grade. The key to a good project is that it be well written, creative, related in some way to class material and it teaches me something. We will talk more about projects in class.
We also have Photo of the week activities. If your photo or answer is selected you earn 4 points. We'll talk more about this in class.