The Earth System by Kump, Kasting, and Crane

    The textbook covers some material beyond the scope of this class. Required reading
    will focus on material of direct relevance to the class, but the curious student would
    do well to read the entire book.

Course requirements.

    Your grade will be based on exams, assignments, a research project, and class
    participation:

    Assignments 25%
    Research project 25%
    Midterms 20%
    Final exam 20%
    Quizzes, class participation 10%

    You are expected to attend lectures and participate in class. Quizzes will be unannounced
    and will be largely based on the previous lecture. There will be no make-up quizzes, but
    your lowest quiz score of the quarter will be dropped. There will be no make-up exams
    except in the case of serious illness or death in the immediate family, in which case you
    must contact one of us in advance of the exam. Assignments are due in class at 10:30 on
    the day indicated. Late assignments will not be accepted without advance arrangement.

Office hours.

    Instructors: By appointment only, but don't hesitate to call us!

Project.

    In groups, students will research the details of Earth's past climate over specific time periods
    and present their findings in class. You will be required to:
    (a) contribute to the group's effort;
    (b) participate in the oral presentation of results, or in putting the group's work on the web; and
    (c) turn in an individually-written paper describing the group's work and your contribution to it.
More information on the project is available through this link.

Written critique.

    Assignment 5 will be a written critique of an article in the non-scientific media about some
    aspect of climate change. You will have the opportunity to present your critique orally as a basis
    for class discussion if you wish.

Class calendar.
 

Assignment 1 due	Thursday, January 11
Martin Luther King Day (no class)	Monday, January 15
Assignment 2 due	Monday, January 22
Midterm 1	Tuesday, January 23
Student presentations	Week 6, February 5 - 9
Project write-up due	Monday, February 12
Assignment 3 due	Tuesday, February 13
Presidents' Day (no class)	Monday, February 19
Midterm 2	Wednesday, February 21
Assignment 4 due	Friday, March 2
Assignment 5 due	Thursday, March 8
Final exam	Monday 3/12/01, 8:30-10:20 am

Grading

The points assigned to the various exams and assignments are as follows:

homework assignments (5 x 50)     250 points
midterms (2 x 100)                200
final                             200
group project                     100
paper based on group project      150
weekly pop-quizes (10 x 10)       100

total                            1000 points

Points on the above scale are converted to grade points as follows:

                                  1000   4.0
                                   980   3.9
                                   960   3.8
                                   900   3.5
                                   800   3.0
                                   700   2.5
                                   600   2.0

Based on this grading scheme, the mean GPA for ATMS 211 last quarter was 3.1.