geo2242 extreme weather spring 2017...

GEO2242: Extreme Weather, Spring 2017

GEO2242 – Extreme Weather Spring 2017 SYLLABUS

Instructor Fergus Keatinge

Email Fergus@ufl.edu or via Canvas

Office Hours Turlington Hall 3108C by appointment.

As a compromise for answering emails 24/7 through my phone

Disclaimer: This syllabus represents my current plans and objectives. As we go through the

semester, those plans may need to change to enhance the class learning opportunity. Such

changes, communicated clearly, are not unusual and should be expected.

Grading Scale

A = 94-100% A- = 90-92.99% B+ = 86-89.99 B = 82-85.99

B- = 77-81.99 C+ = 72-76.99 C =67-71.99 C- = 62-66.99

D+ = 57-61.99 E = less than 57%

Recommended Books

These books are only recommended, and I’m not forcing anyone to buy anything, you’re in

enough debt as it is, I’m not making it worse.

The Oceans and Climate - Grant Bigg

Extreme Weather & Climate - Ahrens and Samson

The Atmosphere - Lutgens and Tarbuck

Others are great - UF MARSTON SCIENCE LIBRARY General Collection -- QC861 area

Course Description

This course covers introductory information about Earth’s atmosphere, weather development,

and extreme weather events. To understand the destructive power of weather events, you must

first have a basic understanding of why and how it forms. In other words, this is a “science”

course, although a background in calculus, chemistry, or physics is not required.

This course will help you understand the weather outside your window every day, and can serve

as a springboard towards more advanced coursework in weather and climate. Students will be

introduced to basic concepts of the science of weather and climate and current scientific

developments in areas such as extreme weather forecasting and global climate change.

This class offers more than just content about Extreme Weather; university is about learning life

lessons - team work, social skills, time management, empathy, patience. Anybody can learn

about extreme weather, there are free classes all over the internet. Life lessons can’t be taught

over the internet....

Evaluation - How will this class be graded?

ALL ASSIGNMENTS AND DETAILS ARE IN ASSIGNMENTS TAB. Below are brief

descriptions of how you will be tested.

Quizzes: There will be weekly quizzes that are due the Sunday night after last week’s class.

These will test you on material for that’s weeks class to ensure you've learned what we examined

that week / give you easy points!!!.

Midterms: There will be two in-class exam in the middle of the semester (i will give the date at

the beginning of the term). These exams cannot be made-up. They’re only worth a small amount

and will be multiple choice, true/false.

Project / presentation or poster: You will be placed into groups of 4/5 depending on class size

by alphabetical order to create a project roughly 20 pages in length. This project will be

submitted as a file upload and is due at the end of term; i will give lots of in class time for you to

work on projects.

Two weeks before the project is due, a draft of your written section will be uploaded

individually, worth a small amount of points.

At the end of term each group will create and give a power point presentation or a poster

presentation 9 minutes long (1 minute of questions) and it will presented to the rest of the class.

Each group member will talk (NO EXCEPTIONS). General Format: Introduction,

Methods/Data, Results, Conclusions/Future work.

Be creative and try to include lots of graphics/graphs/visualized data.

YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF ORGANIZING YOURSELVES IN YOUR GROUPS (email,

meetings, deciding who does what) AND CREATING THE POWERPOINT/POSTER. FINAL

MARK WILL BE THE SAME FOR EACH GROUP MEMBER.

PRACTICE THE PRESENTATION BEFORE HAND… ill know if you’re doing it on the fly.

The hand in date for the project is final and i will NOT accept any late work, you will get a zero

if there is no file upload by at least one of the group members.

Article review: The article review must have been recently published (within the last 2 years).

Each article summary is required to be 2 pages in length (800+ words), 1” margins, 12-pt., and

Times New Roman font. Either single or double spaces LINES are OK. Summarize the article

and identify how it relates to geography, specifically linking to the ideas presented in this course.

Be sure to cite the journal used in bibliographical format. Please see this website to learn how to

properly cite bibliography materials (An infinitely important skill for your university career).

- http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/msl/07b/studentciting.html

Class participation: I expect everyone at actively participate in class, this include answering

questions, talking about subjects, leading discussions, getting your opinions/voices heard! If i

don’t know your name or who you are by the end of term you won’t get class participation

marks.

Class Attendance: an attendance sheet will be given out for you to fill in randomly throughout

the term (4/5 times). To get attendance marks come to class!

Absences may be excused if they are documentable. For expected absences, you must provide

advance notice of the absence. Acceptable reasons for absences include but are not limited to

personal or family illness or emergency, religious holidays, etc. per UF Attendance Policies.

Oversleeping, missing the bus, etc. are not acceptable excuses. You may be required to provide

written documentation in order to receive an excused absence.

Group Weight

Quizzes 15%

Final Project and Presentation 45%

Mid Terms 15%

Article Review 10%

Attendance 5%

Class Participation 10%

Total 100%

Extra Credit: This course DOES NOT offer extra credit.

Disability Statement

Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students

Office. This office will provide documentation to the student who must them provide this

documentation to the Instructor. Please provide this documentation to me as soon as possible,

and a minimum of one week before an exam.

Academic Honesty

You are bound by the student academic honor code.

“We, the members of the University of Florida Community, pledge to hold ourselves and our

peers to the highest standards of honesty and integrity.”

“On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this assignment.”

Academic dishonesty will receive a grade of zero for the exam and will result in a report to the

appropriate student body.

Software/Computer Use All faculty, staff and students of the University are required and expected to obey the laws and

legal agreements governing software/computer use. Failure to do so can lead to monetary

damages and/or criminal penalties for the individual violator. Because such violations are also

against University policies and rules, disciplinary action will be taken as appropriate.

Getting Help

For issues with technical difficulties for E-learning in Canvas, please contact the UF Help Desk

at:

● Learning-support@ufl.edu

● (352) 392-HELP - select option 2

● https://lss.at.ufl.edu/help.shtml (Links to an external site.)

** Any requests for make-ups due to technical issues MUST be accompanied by the ticket

number received from LSS when the problem was reported to them. The ticket number will

document the time and date of the problem. You MUST e-mail your instructor within 24 hours

of the technical difficulty if you wish to request a make-up.

Other resources are available at http://www.distance.ufl.edu/getting-help for:

Counseling and Wellness resources

Disability resources

Resources for handling student concerns and complaints

Library Help Desk support