Class Meeting Times and Location:
Course Description: This is an introductory course for non-science majors on climate and climate change. The ultimate goal is to provide the students with a concise fundamental understanding of the chemical and physical processes that control Earth's climate so that they can use this knowledge to be informed participants in future environmental policy debates. To achieve this goal we will synthesize a wide array of scientific concepts and current thinking on the processes that control Earth's climate, divided into three parts:
The primary objective is to develop student understanding of how the climate system works, how climate has changed in the past, and how it is now being changed by human activity. The course also emphasizes skills needed to analyze and critically evaluate public discussions of climate issues. This is a course for students of all backgrounds. A working knowledge of high school algebra and high school physical sciences is assumed. This is a Natural World (NW) course. Course Structure:Lectures will be held in PAA A110, Monday-Thursday at 10:30 am. The Friday class, led by Étienne Tétreault-Pinard, will be used for quizzes, questions about the lectures, and discussions about homework problems and exam questions. There will be homework assignments, a midterm exam and a final exam. Exams will require short answers and short essays. If you have a good reason why you cannot take an examination on the date specified, please inform the instructor well in advance of the date. There will be no makeup exams except in case of serious illness or death in the family. You must be excused by Prof. Battisti in advance of the date of the exam. Students are expected to do their own work on quizzes and exams, without consulting notes or other resources. Students may consult with one another and with the instructor or the TA on homework, but each student is expected to write up his or her answers independently. The weekly readings, handouts, and labs may be found as part of the course Schedule page. Course Assessment:
The Earth System by Kump, L. R., J. F. Kasting, and R. G. Crane, Prentice Hall, 3rd ed., 2010. The textbook will be supplemented with handouts.
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