Welcome to the student orientation of Introduction to Atmospheric Sciences

Please read this page prior to the first week of classes. This page serves to get you started and familiar with this class web page. You will learn where you can find what. It is your orientation map for navigation of the class page. The links lead you either to the respective page or provide further information on a subject. Thus explore them. Have fun hopping around.

How to navigate the class page

Watch this video for navigation of the class page.

Let’s get to know the classmates and professor

I am Nicole Mölders aka Carmen N. Moelders, your professor of Introduction to Atmospheric Science. You can learn more about me at this link.

Please introduce you yourself to your classmates on the discussion board in the general channel.   A short elevator type pitch of where you come from, what is the typical weather where you come from, where did you get your education, what is your degree program, what you want to do after graduation, and a fun fact about you. When you are a graduate student also add who is your adviser and what is your research interest.

Course content

You can find a description of the subjects covered by this class at the link. When the various subjects will be covered is listed in the course schedule.

Syllabus

The syllabus of this class can be found at the link at the top of the page underneath the class banner. Please read the syllabus carefully. It will provide you information about this class, its goals, a course description, my expectations on your performance and etiquette, grading and class policies, due dates, academic honor code, plagiarism. In other words, it will give you excellent ideas what you have to do to be successful in this class. There is a downloadable infographic short version of the syllabus in the right sidebar.

The syllabus also provides information on how to contact me, my office location and office hours. Please be aware that I don’t answer email between Friday EoB and Monday BoB. Monday thru Friday I try to answer within 24 h when I am in town. Thus, please plan accordingly.

Minimum requirements to take this class

The academic minimum requirements for this class can be found in the catalog. If you don’t meet them, but want to take this class, please come see me. I will talk with you about your educational background. I will give permission to take this class when based on my professional experience, your educational background is comparable to the catalog requirements. To do an overwrite of the pre-requisites for you, I need your student ID when there are several students with the same name.

What you will need for this class

Textbook

We will use the textbook
Mölders, N., and Kramm, G., 2014. Lectures in Meteorology, Springer, Netherlands, pp.591.

The book is available at the UAF bookstore, amazon, Barnes and Noble, as well as Springer. At the bookstore, there maybe also used versions of the book. In case you order the book online, allow at least 1-2 weeks for shipping. The prices vary by seller. I recommend that you browse which seller has the lowest price at the moment.

Please note that I will do an open book exam. Students will have to bring a hard copy of the above book to the mid-term and final exam. Please understand that I cannot permit students to use the eBook version or a printout thereof. I also cannot allow you to use your phone as a calculator in the exam. 🙁   The reason is that UAF requires to ensure that all students have access to the same material during exams. If some students were to use the eBook or their cell-phone, they would have access to the internet during the exam. Thus, it could not be ensured that they will not google other material. If they would use a printout of the eBook, it also cannot be ensured that there are no other resources hidden in the printout. I want to give everybody the same fair chance.

The above exam requirement does not mean that you will have to buy the hard copy. It just means you are only allowed to use the hard copy in the exams.

Note that the Keith Mather library has the book and it is put on the reserve shelf exclusively for use by the students of this class. This means you can go and work in the library using the book while you wait for your copy to arrive. It also ensures that all of you have access to the book and not only Gladstone Gander who was lucky enough to check it out. 😉

IT requirements

You will need an electronic device (laptop, tablet, PC, Mac) on which you can access the class pages, and watch the movies. When you don’t have any of these devices, be aware that there are PCs in the library that you can use. You also need internet access. When your band with is small you can download the movies to your device. There is a link to a tutorial how to download movies in the right sidebar of the class page.

Other requirements

You will need a calculator, a hard copy of the book, writing material, and paper for the mid-term and final exam.

Disclosure statements for required software packages

I expect that you can handle and work with Adobe reader, google forms, google doc, google sheets, and excel. 😉 You can download the software from the OIT software catalog. You can find what software you can use to open the MP4 videos at the link. You can find information on the google accessibility and the wordpress accessibility at the links.

Class mode

Online. Learn about this class to know what to expect.

Other resources

I am teaching this class since 2001 except 2002, and created a FAQ  section for each Unit based on my experience. The class is online since 2014 and I created a FAQ  page for IT and related questions. Check that page first when you have IT problems, etc. There are also links to academic resources, meteorology related resources in the left side bar.

Units

The material of this class is subdivided into units. You will have to finish the units in the named week by the deadline. Just follow the respective unit page. You can find the all the unit pages under unit and can get there also directly from the class schedule.

How to know which unit is due

You can find out which unit you have to prepare in the schedule that also has links to the units. The link to the schedule is under the class banner as the top of the page.

Mid-term and Final exam

You can find out when and where the final exam will be in the UAF exam schedule. For your convenience it is also linked in the left hand side (l.h.s.) sidebar together with a calendar. You will be allowed to use a hard copy of the textbook.

Misc

There are various weather related links in the left sidebar, and links with respect to constants, etc. that you may need for class work. In the right side bar, you can find a link to a periodic table.

© Nicole Mölders | All rights reserved