Images are © Alistair B. Fraser and may not be copied and used by others.

Observing Meteorological Phenomena

The work ethic is good,
you ought to do your homework,
it's necessary to work to be a full citizen.

Newt Gingrich

A S S I G N M E N T S

L a b o r a t o r y R e p o r t s
There will be no examinations in this course. Your grade will be determined by the quality of your written laboratory reports.

Each report will:

Contain one image of a phenomenon that you observed and you photographed this semester.As an object of the course is to familiarise your with the scale of things seen from the ground with the naked eyes, large or synompic scale phenomena are not appropriate. Normally only one image is to be used, but more than one picture is acceptable only if they:
- fit together to present a wide field of view;
- form a stereo pair;
- present a temporal sequence (evolution of something);
- present a spatial sequence (thing seen from various positions).
Contain an explanation of the phenomenon of interest. This should be between 400 and 1000 words in length.
You may prepare diagrams or other visualizations to help you communicate the ideas.
Be submitted in the form of Web document on the personal web server of PSU. Your home page will be linked to the Students page for this course and each essay will be linked to your home page.

The report will be evaluated on the appropriateness, thoroughness, and clarity of the explanations. Within reason, photographic quality is less important than the quality of your interpretation. Diagrams should be used if they enhance the explanations. However, your presentation should be succinct: waffling or padding will not be tolerated. Late reports will be penalized, and you may be required to revise reports that are unsatisfactory.

All reports and pictures are to be your own work. On two earlier occasions, I have failed students who cheated in this course. The primary price students pay for such cheating is not the F on the course, itself, but the revelation of such in letters of recommendation to prospective employers. Do not let the next such person be you!

There will be three reports, each being worth a third of your course grade. Each report is due at noon on the day specified. At that time a mirror copy of your material will be created on the instructor's machine amd this copy will be the one which is graded. Preparation of your personal home page is a requirement, but you will not be graded upon what you say on it. Depending upon the number of students in the class, one of the reports might be transformed into an oral presentation. The topics and due dates are as follows (dates will be refined when the course starts).

Report	Due date	Topic
0	Jan 23	Your personal home page
1		Introduction
1		Introduction (revision)
2		Your choice
3		Your choice (presentation)
4		Same as 3, but on Web

abf1@psu.edu