Course Syllabus

AOSS 105: Our Changing Atmosphere

 

When:                 Tuesday, Thursday 10:00 to 11:30 AM
Where:                1528 C.C. Little Building

Instructor:           Frank J. Marsik, PhD
Primary Office:    2543C Space Research Building (on North Campus)
Phone:                763-5369
Email:                 marsik@umich.edu
Office Hours:       After class from 11:30 to 12:30pm, Room 3002 C.C. Little Building

 

GSI:                    Fang Pan
Email:                 fangpan@umich.edu
Office Hours:      Wednesday 1:00 to 2:00pm, Room 3002 C.C. Little Building

 

Course Description

The course covers the properties and structure of the Earth's atmosphere, and how they are changing. Climate and climate change are emphasized.  The first third of the class will focus on the structure, composition and dynamics of the present-day atmosphere on Earth.  The last two-thirds of the class will be a review of the latest scientific findings regarding climate change as summarized by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, including current trends, future scenarios, and adaption and mitigation strategies.

IMPORTANT:  My goal for this class is not to convince anyone that there will be a given climate future.  Yes, we will spend a little time talking about some of the proposed climate futures.  However, my goal is to provide you with the background information necessary to allow you to make a more informed decision on your own.

 

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Course Resources
 

Textbook (required)

The Climate Crisis: An Introductory Guide to Climate Change
Authors: David Archer and Stefan Rahmstorf
Cambridge University Press, 2010, 231 pages
ISBN 978-0-521-73255-0

This book can be purchased at Ulrich's Bookstore or online. Additionally, there are two electronic versions on the book which can be accessed through MIRLYN. Each of these copies actually allows six concurrent users, so.....twelve students can be reading them online at the same time.  The book is a summary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) on Climate Change.  The book does a nice job of explaining recent climate findings, but does not extensively explain how the climate system works.  We will explore the workings of the climate system during the first month of the class, so you have a few weeks to get a hard copy of the book, if you so desire, before we need to do the readings from it.

Ad Hoc Readings

Any additional reading material will be posted on the class website.

Advanced Learning Platform

The Advanced Learning Platform (ALP) is available through the CANVAS class website.  ALP was designed for assist with large classroom instruction.  Its primary features are that it allows students to:

• take notes on lecture slides during or after class,
• review notes after class (notes are automatically linked to slide and lecture recordings)
• notify instructors when you are confused,
• ask the GSI questions, electronically (in class), and
• answer instructor-posed, in-class questions electronically.

Like any classroom technology, it will have its good days and bad days.  You will always be able to take old-fashioned paper notes in class should the platform not be happy.  You can learn how to use the ALP system by clicking on the "Pages" link on the side toolbar of this page.

 

Course Assignments/Exams/Grading

Exams                     50%   
Homework               30%
Class Participation    20%

The grading for this course will be on a straight scale, percentage-wise: A (94-100), A- (90-93), B+ (87-89), B (84-86), B- (80-83), C+ (77-79), C (74-76), C- (70-73), D+ (67-69), D (64-66), D- (60-63), Fail (<60).  Please note that a grade of A+ will not be offered as part of this class.  We appreciate that this fact is of importance to some disciplines within the university, so I want to insure that this fact is known from the start.  Sorry.

Exams: There will be two in-class, hourly exams (February 16th and March 31st).  The final exam will take place on April 27th, from 10:30am to 12:30pm.  If you have special needs with respect to taking these exams, you must contact me (Frank) two weeks in advance of the exam date.  This timeline is based upon the advanced notice that I must give to the LSA Testing Center.

Each exam will count toward 25% of your total grade.  Your best two out of three test scores will be used (to reach the 50% level of your total grade).  If you are satisfied with your two hourly exam test scores at the end of the term, you are not required to take the final exam.

NOTE: For each exam, you will be allowed to bring in one 8.5 x 11" sheet of paper containing a synthesis of your notes.  You may have notes on both sides of the paper.

Homework: Homework will be assigned on a weekly basis. While most of the homework assignments will be completed online (multiple choice, true/false), a smaller number of short-written assignments may be assigned.

Late assignments:

With prior permission from instructor: No penalty, 100% credit.

First Time: Without prior permission and submitted within 48 hours of due dates: 50% credit.

Additional Times:  No credit

We will drop your lowest two homework scores.

Class Participation: The ALP allows the instructor to pose in-class questions, the responses to which are recorded by the system.  If you chose not to use the ALP for note taking, you should write down your answers to the in-class questions on a piece of paper and then turn in at the end of class.  These are the two methods by which participation will be monitored.  Part of education is being comfortable being wrong once in a while.  As such, these class participation questions will not be graded as correct or incorrect.  However, you still need to answer the questions to get your full participation credit for that day!  Participation points cannot be made up.  However, we will drop your lowest five class participation scores.

 

Honor Code

This class is being taught through the College of Engineering, and thus all involved are subject to the College of Engineering Honor Code, regardless of whether you are enrolled through engineering (AOSS 105/ENSCEN 105) or not (CHEM 105, ENVIRON 105).  Full details of the Honor Code can be found on the Honor Code website: http://ossa.engin.umich.edu/honor-council/.  Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions about the College of Engineering Honor Code policies. 

Key Honor Code messages for this class: 

• While you are free to study in groups and consult your classmates on concepts that you do not understand, all submitted work must be your own. In other words, don't sit with friends in a library and work through the electronic assignments together.
  
• For group assignments, all students should make a substantive contribution.
• You may not consult exams from previous offerings of this course.
• Don't cheat during exams.

 

Religious Holidays

If a religious holiday that you participate in conflicts with the date of any class, assignment due date or exam, please contact me no later than the class prior to the conflict.

 

Poetry

I have no say in whether or not you take a poetry class while you are here at the university.  I can do my little part to share some with you.  This term, I turn to Langston Hughes.....

Dreams
by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is like a barren field
Frozen with snow.