Meteorological Measurements Systems – Lab

Fall 2017 Syllabus

Time:                           Section 012 (Lab C)             Thursday 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Location:                    NWC 5302

012(C) Instructor:   Elizabeth Smith (elizabeth.n.smith@ou.edu)

NWC 5426

Office hours: Tues. 2:30-4:30 PM (NWC 5426) or by appointment

Please feel free to come to me with any questions, concerns, or issues you are facing as a student. I am often in my office outside of these hours, but please be aware that I am also a student. You can always drop in, but I may often not have time to help you immediately if you have more than a quick question. You can email me anytime to set up a time outside of regular office hours that will work for us both. I also don’t mind to answer simple questions via email, but I prefer to meet face-to-face for in depth discussion. I will do my best to respond to emails quickly, but don’t expect a rapid response at 3 AM! J

Lab Materials:         All documents and the five lab instruction manuals will be posted on Canvas. The tools and materials you will need to complete each lab  will be provided during the lab session. You should have a lab notebook for taking notes during lab classes and for  documenting your findings. An inexpensive notebook should be fine. The information you put into these lab notes will help you put together your lab reports. Make sure to document your results and  procedures! Tip: If you like, use a computer program to document your lab work (e.g., MS Excel). This may expedite your analysis and report preparation time!

Grading:                    A total of 5 grades (each from a different laboratory experiment) will be averaged and worth 25% of the overall METR 3613 grade. Each of these 5 grades will be divided into two sections:

• Quiz 10%
• Lab report 90%

Lab Schedule:

Laboratory Manuals

A total of five laboratory manuals will be used during this course. Lab manuals and additional lab handouts can be found online on Canvas during the week before your scheduled lab. Each manual contains background about the lab, a description of the laboratory experiment, and the assignment to be completed. You will have a period of almost two weeks (13 days) to complete the lab. Make sure to read the lab prior to coming to class so you are prepared. You are responsible for bringing a printed copy of the lab description to the lab classes.

Quizzes

A short quiz will take place at the beginning of each lab. The quizzes are meant to make sure that you go over the lab manual material beforehand and come to class prepared. Being aware of what the lab is about will help you go through the experiment efficiently. It will be easier for you to understand what is going on and even finish early!  The quizzes  will include approximately five questions and will be based on the material discussed in the corresponding lab manual.  Quizzes will go under the quiz category.

Laboratory Assignments

Lab assignments are designed to help you understand the material learned in lecture, but also to help you in the learning process of writing a full laboratory report. The first laboratory assignment will be the easiest one to carry out and to document. It will require some data analysis, learning some of the basics on how to display results in scientific documents, and some basic writing (you will demonstrate your ability to summarize). You will develop a simplified/reduced lab report for the second laboratory assignment. The final three assignments will consist of full laboratory reports, and their format will be somewhat similar to that of your Senior Capstone projects. Writing skills that you learn in this class will carry over to other places such as your job, any research you may do, and your Senior Capstone project.

There will be a total of 5 assignments during the semester, which will be related to the material covered during the corresponding laboratory session. Each assignment must be submitted electronically to Canvas by 8 PM on Monday evening before the next lab session. Be mindful to submit your assignment to the correct section under the correct TA. For every hour the lab is late, 10% will be taken off the lab grade. If you are late and email your assignment, you must use only your OU email accounts. Please submit ‘.docx’ or ‘.pdf’ documents. Please use the following convention for naming your files: LastnameFirstname*.pdf (i.e. SmithElizabethLab1.pdf). No printed hardcopy of the assignment is required (unless explicitly specified).

Laboratory Assignments & Academic Misconduct

Although lab experiments are carried out in teams and data must be shared among team members, the assignments must be written up individually.  Please see the section below  on academic misconduct and note your responsibility to be familiar with OU’s academic misconduct code. If you ever are in doubt on this topic, please speak to the professor or one of the TAs before you turn in your assignments. Any form of copying text from another student’s reports, scripts, laboratory manuals, or any other  material  publicly available without making references will be treated as academic misconduct.

MATLAB Help Sessions

Three homework assignments for the Measurements lecture will require you to analyze  and plot data in MATLAB. Dr. Klein will hold several help sessions during the Friday lectures to help you with these assignments. In addition, you may ask the TA who is grading the assignment (Elizabeth) for assistance. It is extremely important that you start these assignments early so that you have ample time to ask for help if you need it. The TA will not be available to answer questions on the day that a MATLAB assignment is due. It is your responsibility to manage your time wisely and start the assignment before the day  it is due.

Attendance and Make-up Policy

The lab experiments must be performed in a team and must follow a strict schedule. Therefore, we expect 100% attendance to be the norm, and it is required that you attend the laboratory exercises at the times designated for the group for which you signed up. Lab exercises cannot be made up without a prior permission, which will be granted by the instructors on a case-by-case basis and under extraordinary circumstances.

If you miss a lab, you may not use someone else’s data. Any attempt to do so without permission by the instructors will be treated as academic misconduct, and actions will be taken according to the academic misconduct code described further below. So, again … please don’t do it!

Other Important Policies

Reasonable accommodation: The University of Oklahoma is committed to provide 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 Disability Resource Center prior to receiving accommodations in this course. The Disability Resource Center is located in Goddard Health Center, Suite 166, phone 405-325-3852 or TDD only 405-325-4173.

Academic Misconduct: All provisions of the Norman Campus Academic Misconduct Code shall apply in cases of academic dishonesty. Academic misconduct is defined as “any act that improperly affects the evaluation of a student’s academic performance or achievement.” All faculty at the University of Oklahoma expect academic integrity from each student. Misconduct such as plagiarism, fabrication and fraud, as well as attempting to commit such acts or assisting others in doing so, will not be tolerated. Students are responsible    for                     knowing  the                      academic               misconduct                               code (http://integrity.ou.edu/files/Academic_Misconduct_Code.pdf), which is included in the student code. All instances of alleged academic misconduct will be thoroughly investigated and action will be taken according to the rights and responsibilities described under the academic misconduct code: http://integrity.ou.edu/files/Academic_Misconduct_Code.pdf.

Adjustments for Pregnancy/Childbirth Related Issues: Should you need modifications or adjustments to your course requirements because of documented pregnancy-related or childbirth-related  issues,  please  contact  me  as  soon  as  possible  to  discuss.  Generally,

modifications will be made where medically necessary and similar in scope to accommodations                                       based          on          temporary          disability.           Please          see www.ou.edu/content/eoo/pregnancyfaqs.html for commonly asked questions.

Religious Holiday Policy: It is the policy of the University to excuse the absences of students that result from religious observances and to provide without penalty for the rescheduling of examinations and additional required course work that may fall on a religious holiday.

Title IX Resources: For any concerns regarding gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, stalking, or intimate partner violence, the University offers a variety of resources, including advocates on-call 24/7, counseling services, mutual no contact orders, scheduling adjustments and disciplinary sanctions against the perpetrator. Please contact the Sexual Misconduct Office 405-325-2215 (8-5) or the Sexual Assault Response Team 405-615-0013 (24/7) to learn more or to report an incident.

Elizabeth Smith has completed training and been certified as an LGBTQ Ally by the OU Gender + Equality Center. An LGBTQ Ally is an individual with the awareness, knowledge, and skills to confront injustice and advocate for equality, while supporting all persons, regardless of perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, who are experiencing discrimination.