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HOME PAGE

Welcome to the home page for GEOG 1400, The Science of Global Warming. Here you will find updates and announcements from class, links to current news events, and basic information about how to contact your instructor (me).

Please explore the site at your leisure, and check out information from lectures, handouts including study guides (coming soon), and links to sites you might find useful for your self-guided field trip, or just for general interest.

CLASS ANNOUNCEMENTS

Study guide for exam 3 posted: Check the handouts page. The final exam will be available Monday to Thursday of exam week (April 21 to 24), during testing center hours, at all the secure proctored sites (several on the Ogden campus, plus Davis and West campuses). Please be aware that, as stated on the syllabus, the final exam will be somewhat comprehensive: 50 questions on our most recent material (covered on the study guide for exam 3), plus 10 more questions on earlier basic material (study guides 1 and 2). The final exam is therefore 60 questions instead of the usual 50. Good luck!!

Presentations schedule posted: Remember that the final week of classes will be team presentations on your carbon-cutting efforts, and Fate of the World efforts. The schedule for presentations is now posted on the handouts page, along with a PDF of the presentation guidelines. Please come to class and support your classmates' presentations, even if you;re not actually presenting that day yourself (and keep up a healthy score on your class participation grade by coming and asking questions).

New prime-time series on global warming: Director James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar, The Abyss, etc.) has just released his new series on global warming, available on Showtime-- or, for those of us without cable, the first episode can be watched for free here.

Exam #2 available Thursday March 20 to Friday March 21: No class Thursday March 20 to give you some time to take the exam, which is available at any of the proctored testing centers (Ogden campus Social Sciences, Student Services, Union, marriott Health Professions, Science buildings; Davis Campus; West campus). Information on testing center locations and hours available here. Study guide is available on the handouts page.

Extra credit opportunities: Wednesday March 19, Robert Workman, founder of GoalZero (solar energy company and non-profit) speaking at 6:30 PM (reception at 5:30), Hurst Center (map here, look to the bottom right (south west corner) of the map for HC). Friday March 21, 12:30 to 1:30 PM, Mormonism and the Environment panel discussion in Wildcat Theater in the Union Building, more information here. Attend either talk, sign in, and get 2% extra credit.

Also, watch Sally Jewell's talk from before spring break; e-mail me with one interesting thing she said at the start and one interesting thing she said at the end, and get 2% extra credit (only for those who did not attend the talk in person- I have a record!). Her talk is not yet available online, but should be soon. Check back.

Study guide for exam #2 posted: Check the handouts section. Recall that our first class back after spring break will have concept sketch #2, on how we know the increase in carbon dioxide is due to burning fossil fuels. I went into this in some detail in class, on the study guide, and the slides are now posted in the lectures section. Study hard- and don't forget to play Fate of the World from time to time.

Problem set #3: As outlined in class, a nice, easy problem set to finish with (this is the last of three), due Tuesday March 4. Click here for a PDF of the assignment handout (unlike the previous two problem sets, you answer on the handout), and click here for the Mauna Loa annual average data that you will need to answer the questions.

Response paper #2 due Tuesday February 25th: See the HANDOUTS section for a copy of the assignment and a link to the video.

Material on the Fate of the World computer game project posted: I will hand out hard copies of the assignment in class on Tuesday, including information on downloading your free copy of the game-- but in the meantime, various documents related to the game and the assignment are posted to the HANDOUTS section.

First mid-term exam: Please take the exam Thursday or Friday, February 6-7, any time the testing centers are open. Information on locations and hours are available here. You may take the exam at the proctored testing centers at the Ogden, Davis and Roy campuses. No class Thursday February 6, to give you time to take the exam.

Study guide for first mid-term exam posted: This is on the HANDOUTS section. Please ignore material towards the end of the study guide on the carbon cycle. I was hoping we'd get to it, but there won't be time before the exam. So, it's on the study guide, but there will be no questions on it. We'll cover the carbon cycle after the mid-term, and there will be questions on the second mid-term exam that deal with the carbon cycle.

Problem set #2: This is due at the start of class on Tuesday February 4th (yep, the class right after your response paper is due). This problem set is A LOT EASIER than problem set #1. Please answer all the questions at the end of chapter 4, except for 1b and 2b. Please type the whole thing (double spaced, 12 point font). You will need to make use of the MODTRAN model, available via David Archer's website at the University of Chicago. Please be precise: for question 3(c), for example, you will need to go to three decimal places.

Please note: You will need to make sure the model has time to run (it sometimes takes a moment)-- just make sure that you don't record values from the previous model run. Also, question 3 involves water vapour. Various of the parts of question 3 involve running the model while holding the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere fixed, versus allowing the amount of water vapour to increase with temperature. These two situations are the WATER VAPOR PRESSURE option = fixed amount of water vapour in the atmosphere, while the RELATIVE HUMIDITY option = allowing the amount of water vapour to rise with temperature. In order to get those options to display, you will need to enter a GROUND TEMPERATURE OFFSET. Otherwise, you can't see them.

Unless the question specifically says otherwise, please use the default settings for the model- no clouds, tropical atmosphere, looking down, etc. You will have to change some of these for specific questions, but in general, please use the defaults.

Response paper #1: Paper #1 is now posted to the HANDOUTS section, here. Due date is Thursday January 30th.

Problem set #1: Please answer the following question as your very first problem in problem set #1 (this will help limber you up for the other problems):

Each problem set is worth 3.67% of your final grade. For purposes of this question only, let's round that down to 3% (this makes the calculations easier). Each mid-term exam is worth 15% of your final grade, and consists of 50 multiple choice questions. How many mid-term exam questions is each problem set worth? Use the rounded-down value of the problem set, 3%, to do this calculation. Remember that a mid-term exam has 50 questions, and is worth 15% of your grade. (Someone in class asked whether you should use one or both mid-terms for this calculation, but it turns out that it doesn't matter.)

Once you've answered this question, please answer the following questions in the Exercises section at the end of chapter 2 of Archer: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6. Note that where Archer refers to dietary calories, these are really 1000 'normal' calories. (He does make an oblique reference to dietary calories being kilocalories, i.e. 1000 calories, but isn't very clear about it.)

Please show all work, and type any written answers. You may use pencil and paper to write out the calculations, or type them, whichever you prefer. Due date is Tuesday January 21.

The Math Tutoring Center should be able to help if you're struggling with any of these. Information is available here.

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