Introduction to Atmospheric Sciences

Project Description and Grading Policy

Your class project involves investigating a topic and writing a term paper of up to 6 pages of text with up to 4 additional pages dedicated to figures and graphs.

It is up to you to choose the topic for the project, and there is a great deal of flexibility in how you approach the project. You should select a topic that you find interesting and would like to pursue in greater depth than is covered in class. Some examples of potential project topics include: the stratospheric ozone hole, the effects of volcanic eruptions on climate, hurricanes, the formation of tornados, cloud identification, El Nino, cyclone development, etc.

Your first step after a selecting a topic will be to compile a list of resources that you will use to investigate the topic. The quality of the sources is as important as the number of sources. In particular, references to web-based sources should be considered very carefully. A 1 page written proposal describing your topic, along with a specific list of references and resources, is due on Friday 26 October. Rejected proposals must be re-written and re-submitted within one week.

Both the proposal and the term paper must be typewritten (e.g., set with a word processor). The paper will be graded based on the following criteria: quality of content, application of class concepts, quality of writing (organization, grammar, spelling, punctuation), and references. The term paper is due on Monday 3 December.