Time: Wednesday 4:00-6:00
Room: NWC 5720
Instructor: Zounes

The Official Description from the OU Catalog:

Reinforces the theoretical concepts provided in the counterpart lecture course Meteorology 2023, which introduces students to important phenomena and physical processes that occur in the earth’s atmosphere. Through a series of laboratory exercises, students will learn the basic concepts and tools that are used to study atmospheric problems. Special emphasis will be placed on developing information technology and computational skills. The laboratory exercises target the topics covered in the lecture component.

Goals of Intro II Lab:

1. Help students develop skills that will help them with Intro I
   1. Problem solving
   2. Deriving
   3. Understanding concepts
2. Introduce/reintroduce students to different facets of meteorology
   1. Programming
   2. Research
   3. Forecasting
   4. Communication
3. Help students with other topics they feel deficient

Expected Weekly Lab Schedule: (subject to change)

4:00-4:05 – Review Lab agenda for the day/turn in lab assignment 4:05-4:10 – Lab quiz/journal checks

4:10-4:30 – Review quiz answers and lab answers/feedback 4:30-5:00 – Topic of the day + 5 min break

5:00-5:15  –  Discuss  current weather

5:15-5:45 – Activity/Lead into next lab assignment 5:45-6:00 – Start/brainstorm lab assignment

Discussions:

Discussions will be mostly decided by the students in the weekly surveys.  In addition to those discussion topics, during the lab section, I will go over:

1. How to read through scientific papers to find an answer without getting overwhelmed
2. Basics of programming in html, python, and matlab
3. How to solve a problem never seen before
4. Various resources and sites to find weather data for forecasting and research
5. Opportunities in the private sector, forecasting, research, and broadcast
6. Current state of the atmosphere

Assignments:

1. Weekly labs: types include practice problems, 1 open-ended short answer, task labs (e.g. interview a professor on their research and provide a report on topics discussed)
2. Weekly Quizzes: 1 problem, 5 minutes, topics mostly conceptual and related to what we did the previous lab
3. Partner weather brief (last lab): Students will pair up and choose an event to explain from a synoptic point of view for 3-5 It is mostly for them to apply what they know, and practice public speaking.   Graded mostly on effort.
4. Equation Journal: Every week, I will do a journal check.  They will make a list of all the equations/relationships covered during the lecture, what each variable is, what the equation represents, what it is used for, and which lecture it was i  This is to help them with their hw and studying for exams.
5. In class weather journal: while I brief on the current state of the atmosphere, students take notes on what they see and what they predict for next week (this is mostly for credit and so they can reflect on their forecast and track patterns)
6. Super lab: structured like a mini measurements lab (to be given near the end of the semester)

Grading:

Labs:                            40% (~5% each)

Super Lab:                   20%

Quizzes:                       20%

Eq Journal Check:      10% (for credit) Wx Journal Check:            10% (for credit)

1 dropped regular lab and 1 dropped quiz

Super Lab:

• Pick a question/problem/topic to investigate that isn’t easily “google-able”; requires use of data
• Length: 3-4 pgs of text, to include a short literature review of their topic, their methodology, data, conclusions, and future tests required to get the result
• Answering their question is not as important to me as them going through the question and discerning some sort of results from their data
• PURPOSE: To expose them to longer labs before measurements lab, and put them through the motions of basic research and investigation
• PREPARATION: This lab will occur after I teach them how to read scientific papers without getting overwhelmed, how to write a lab report, resources they can use to find data, etc.
• EXECUTION: They will be given 4 weeks to complete this lab, with weekly progress reports to impede procrastination

Philosophies:

Students that care will be given the opportunity to expand their knowledge of the field of meteorology; though, I can’t force people to learn if they don’t want to.  I intend on teaching in a way that leads students to the answer, instead of talking at them. I’d like to be more of a discussion, since interaction more solidifies concepts (for me at least).  I don’t want this to be a blow off class; instead I want it to be worth their time while not overwhelming them with work, so I plan on keeping the labs themselves (apart from the super lab) less than an hour’s worth of work.  I plan to utilize all 2 hours of the lab time every time, and then they spend less than an hour outside the lab working.

Academic  Misconduct:

Academic misconduct is a serious breach of ethics since it potentially can harm those students who are honestly pursuing their studies. All instances of alleged academic misconduct will be thoroughly investigated and action taken under the official university policies. All students are expected to be familiar with and abide by the OU Academic Misconduct Code. Information on this code and other student policies is located at http://studentconduct.ou.edu.

Students with Disabilities:

The University of Oklahoma is committed to providing reasonable accommodation for all students with disabilities. Students with disabilities who require accommodations in this course are requested to speak with the professor as early in the semester as possible. Students with disabilities must be registered with the Office of Disability Services prior to receiving accommodations in this course. The Office of Disability Services is located in Goddard Health Center, Suite 166, phone 405-325-3852 or TDD only 40325-4173.