Teaching
Teaching Philosophy and Goals
My overall goals for student learning are to increase their understanding of the principle concepts
and theories in atmospheric science and to develop the necessary skills for using the tools and
technology central to our discipline. To accomplish this, I strive to go beyond merely teaching
facts and principles – although these undoubtedly must be included – and attempt to help
students develop higher-order thinking skills they will need as they encounter “beyond-thetextbook”
problems in their careers. This is especially important for atmospheric scientists, in
both operational and research settings, as textbook cases are rarely, if ever, encountered in the
“real” world. I believe that by challenging students in a variety of ways – homework problems,
lab exercises, and exams – they can become active participants in the learning process.
Of course, teaching does not stop after the assigned class time has ended. I have both scheduled
office hours and an open-door policy for students to drop in with questions or concerns. I also
make sure that students have my office phone number and e-mail address to make appointments
or to ask questions.
Graduate courses
Graduate courses represent a completely different way of teaching and my primary goal when
teaching a graduate class is to try to learn at least as much from my students as they learn from
me. My graduate courses rarely find me lecturing or even leading the discussion – I leave that
up to the students. I feel that my role is one of providing guidance as we explore together.
At the graduate level, my focus is for the students to immerse themselves in the primary
literature of a specific topic to gain an understanding of both the history of the science and its
current state. Depending on the number and background of the students, I also strive to develop
a class project that can lead to a research publication.
This course makes use of basic mathematics, physics, and (some)
chemistry to describe the atmosphere and many atmospheric processes in a quantitative fashion.
This course provides the necessary background for the more advanced courses that you need to
take to complete your undergraduate degree and qualify yourself as a meteorologist. Much of the
material covered in this class will be dealt with in much greater depth in these upper-level
courses.
Prerequisites: METR 200, MATH 106 and PHYS 211.
In this course we will investigate the physical processes that provide the
foundation for weather forecasting and climate prediction, including cloud formation, precipitation,
radiative transfer, and atmospheric electricity. We will also explore the physical underpinnings of such
atmospheric phenomena as optical displays (for example, rainbows, halos, etc.) and lightning.
Prerequisites: CSCE 15-, METR 205 and PHYS 212/212H.