Thomas Ackerman
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Because I am the Director of JISAO, I receive release time from teaching. This is good (because otherwise I would never have a chance to catch up with my work) and bad (because I really like to teach). Each academic year, I generally teach two courses. One quarter, I organize a seminar course that meets once a week. We bring in a different speaker each week organized loosely around a theme. The other quarter, I teach a “regular” class. The table below lists the courses I have taught the last few years with links to the web pages that are maintained by the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, where appropriate. (If any of these links are broken, please let me know; sometimes the department web site changes in ways that affect the links.)

	Fall Quarter	Winter Quarter	Spring Quarter
2005-06	(released)	ATMS 523: Seminar Clouds and precipitation	ATMS 534: Remote sensing
2006-07		ATMS 524: Seminar Energy transfer	ATMS 211: Climate and climate change
2007-08		ATMS 524: Seminar Energy Transfer	ATMS 591: Aerosol indirect effects
2008-09 (proposed)			ATMS 211: Climate and climate change

Discovery Seminars. The University of Washington offers short focused courses for incoming freshman that meet the month before fall quarter. Dr. Cecilia Bitz and I have proposed such a course for September 2008 and it will be listed on the Discovery Seminar page when that page becomes operative. The course description is:

Proposed Course Global Warming: Facts, Fiction and Solutions

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 was shared between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore Jr. “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." On December 20, 2007, a press release was posted on the web page of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works entitled “U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007.” Who is correct? Is global warming a coming environmental disaster or a scientific hoax or somewhere in between?

This Discovery seminar focuses on the questions of global warming. What are the processes that maintain earth climate and how do they work? Can human activity alter climate? Why are greenhouse gases a double-edged sword that simultaneously maintains life but also threatens life on earth? Are there solutions to the global warming problem?

The team-taught course includes discussions on scientific methodology and thought, an introduction to climate science, use of a simple computer-based climate model to explore global climate feedbacks, exploration of the effects of global warming on Pacific Northwest climate, and examination of possible solution strategies and technological options. Students have the opportunity to carry out a brief research study on a topic of interest and to take two field trips to renewable energy sites. This is an excellent gateway course for students interested in pursuing studies in natural sciences, environmental science, journalism and science writing, political science, or public policy. This course can be used toward completion of the Natural World (NW) requirement.

If you are interested in this seminar, please feel free to contact me.