General College Curriculum Goals

Course Number: GC 1111

Credits: 4 semester credits

Diversified Core: Physical Science with Lab

Designated Theme: N/A

Writing Intensive: N/A

Completed by: Allen B. Johnson

Date completed: 2/12/99

A. Develop academic skills (i.e., processes involved with both acquiring and demonstrating knowledge) and successfully apply them to college-level coursework

Curricular Goals	Course Goals	Learning Activities
1. Students will read college-level texts.	Students acquire content, concepts and terminology	Reading college-level introductory test in meteorology and use course material containing data tables, charts and maps (TCM)
2. Students will understand lecture material.	Various methods are used to convey information and enhance understanding	Understanding is enhanced through dialogue, discussion, lecture, charts, in-class exercises (either individually or as team of two)
3. Students will participate in classroom discussions.	Students are told in the syllabus and during the first week that they each have a specific responsibility to contribute to the learning environment and the quality of learning in the class and lab.	By raising questions or asking for clarification, answering questions, introducing issues—possibly from logs they have written
4. Students will write a variety of documents.	They do a variety of writing activities which allows them to express their understanding of topics or issues	• complete short-answer tests (50 min.) biweekly where they respond to questions of application and facts • they obtain current information about anything concerning the atmosphere each week and then write a critique (Log), including answering a set of generic questions, about each weekly issue • they are expected to practice writing notes as they study course material
5. Students will understand quantitative problems.	They perform a variety of learning activities that require quantitative thinking	• they develop their ability to observe local weather elements and express them quantitatively, such as in station models • learn to quantify and express all observations into units, such as °F, millibars of pressure, etc. • learn to use observations to analyze how weather systems are changing by making weather maps and charts • apply basic algebra and statistics to understand what observed data mean
6. Students will be able to use a computer.	They use the internet for a variety of learning activities	• open and study current weather conditions from radar, satellite and surface observations on .gov and .edu , as well as commercial sources • they study how forecasts are made on .gov and .edu • they access a great variety of information about the atmosphere each week as the do a weekly critique (Log) of current issues. This often includes major current issues, such as El Nino, La Nina, devastating storms, droughts, drift of toxic airborne chemicals
7. Students are willing to receive information and respond to it.	They respond to a variety of information	• they are positive about their new-found skills in observing local weather…identifying clouds, understanding what clouds tell them, forecasting local weather accurately, understanding the physics of some observable atmospheric phenomena, such as thunderstorms, rainbows, snowflake patterns. • they respond well to generic question that address the social impact of certain atmospheric phenomena as they do their weekly logs
8. Students develop values, organize them into systems, and apply those systems to their private and public lives.	They develop an understanding and appreciation of “how the atmosphere works” and produces the weather and climate we have. They learn how to “make sense” of the weather and learn “how to think about the weather” to the point where they understand what the weather will be in the near future.	• they observe local weather and then relate those observations to the larger scale, regional, weather patterns that cause the local weather • they learn how to read regional weather maps and charts and then develop forecasts of what the local weather will be
9. Other.

B. Build and use a foundation of general knowledge in the discipline

Curricular Goals	Course Goals	Learning Activities
10. Appreciate the discipline as a valuable area of knowledge.	• They learn to understand how and why the atmosphere behaves as it does. They learn some of the basic science behind our weather and climate. • they develop an awareness of all the ways that the atmosphere affects or life, including the very existence of life. • they develop an understanding for the aesthetic aspects of the atmosphere • The course is intended to emphasize real issues and problems. This requires that it is much more than a mere spelling and vocabulary course. • The course is taught from the standpoint of “how to think about the atmosphere and it’s weather and climate. It is important that they view the field as professionals in the field do.	• the study of the physical atmosphere is actually applied physics. Concepts, principles, and terminology in physics is continually applied in the context of the atmosphere and it’s weather and climate. Include are the gas laws, laws concerning energy conversion and transfer, states of matter, magnitude, movement, light, etc. Biweekly tests focus on the science in context aspect of the discipline. • emphasis is placed on the fact that all weather and climates are the result of interactions between the atmosphere, oceans, land, plants, animals, and solar radiation. Exercises are designed to highlight these interactions. • Students analyze forecasts that are prepared by professional forecasters to appreciate how the forecaster thinks
11. Identify and describe issues or problems in the discipline.	• They develop and appreciation for the great difficulty of accurately predicting weather and climate change. • they increase their awareness of current issues and problems (especially social issues) relating to the atmosphere and it’s weather and climate	• through class discussion, text readings and Logs of current issues they become aware of problems and difficulties in the discipline
12. Analyze and reflect upon issues or problems in the discipline.	They develop an appreciation and understanding of the complexity of the atmosphere and realize why the experts do not often agree on predictions	• they look at various weather forecasts and global climate predictions and analyze why the were either right or wrong. These difficulties are discussed in class and highlighted in their Logs of current issues.
13. Solve issues or problems in the discipline.	Problems and controversial issues are addressed	• they are asked to address possible solutions in their weekly Logs • problems are addressed in lab exercises and in biweekly tests, for the purpose of helping the student think through the solution to a problem.
14. Think creatively.
15. Other.

C. Demonstrate greater awareness of and respect for individual, cultural, ethnic, and religious differences

Curricular Goals	Course Goals	Learning Activities
16. Awareness and respect for diversity in terms of content.	• Impact of the planetary atmosphere and it’s weather and climate on everyone in the world. • they begin to realize the all we now know and understand about the atmosphere and its weather and climate is the culmination of observations and analysis by cultures since pre-historic times.	• weekly logs provide the opportunity to realize both the beneficial and detrimental impact the atmosphere has on all of us. • proverbs and folk tales are a statement of patterns and changes that cultures have observed and predictions that they made based upon those observations. • they explore the scientific basis of these old sayings
17. Awareness and respect for diversity in terms of process.	The processes of understanding and forecasting the weather exercised throughout human history are basically the same as those now used by professional forecasters. Only the level of sophistication is different.	They students use their own bodily senses to observe weather. This is not a high-tech course. Therefore, the procedures they use in the course are similar to those used by earlier cultures and, also are those used in professional forecasting..
18. Other.

D. Develop attitudes and behaviors that are associated with success in college

Curricular Goals	Course Goals	Learning Activities
19. Class participation.	SEE ITEM 3 ABOVE
20. Use of learning resources.	They use a variety of resources, including written and electronic material, data tables, graphs, charts, maps, equations	• written material from textbook, libraries, internet • a 50 page course publication that contains data tables, charts, maps, graphs and schematic diagrams that are used in class, in lab, and in biweekly tests.
21. Task completion.	Several activities are repetitive on a biweekly cycle. Biweekly tests, on Fridays, is the culmination of each two week’s work.	• Tests covering class material, text readings and lab exercises are given every other week (Friday) with feedback the following Tuesday. • Labs are held every week, the content of which is in the biweekly test. • Logs of articles or issues concerning the atmosphere are turned in each week – on Friday.
22. Appropriate interaction with peers, faculty, and staff on academic issues.	Opportunities for interaction exist in class, labs, and small study groups.	• Peer interaction occurs in class in discussion and working on small in-class exercises. • There is heavy interaction between TA s and students in labs and small study groups • Interaction with faculty occurs through dialogue in class and before/after class and by appointment.
23. Understand themselves better as learners.	• Correct wrong ideas • Realize that they can learn new knowledge and use it in real situations. This is important and difficult in science classes. • They overcome the fear of science.	• Science is taught in the context of what the student is already familiar and knowledgeable about. The instructor engages the student where he or she is at and then moves them into unfamiliar territory.
24. Evaluate their own strengths, limitations, and interests.	SEE #25 BELOW	The biweekly testing allows for them to learn how to establish more effective study strategies
25. Set attainable academic and career goals.	Biweekly testing allows for them to develop effective study strategies early in the term. They can make “course corrections” early. They often find that they can go further academically than they thought they could originally.	After the first two tests, the instructor meets with students who got off to a slow start and discusses changing certain strategies. If the do better on the next test, they are encouraged.
26. Time management.	SEE #21 ABOVE.
27. Test taking.	Frequent testing (7 tests) and feedback highlight the course and provide the basis for students to structure their study strategies. This gets them involve in course from day one. It helps them deal with “dead time”.	With a test the second week, they soon learn “how” to study “what” in the course each week.
28. Library skills.	Searching for information that focuses on current issues relating to the atmosphere.	The weekly Logs require that students access information through the library, internet, TV, and other sources.
29. Condensing and summarizing.	Current issues about the atmosphere are critiqued.	The weekly Logs require condensing information and writing a brief summary that gets at the main issue.
30. Techniques for organizing knowledge.	Knowledge, concepts and terminology is organized around the primary interest in weather forecasting.	• Assisted by the course publication: SECTION NOTES. Knowledge and content is organized in an order that seems to make sense to science-anxious students. They get involved in forecasting very early in the course.
31. Familiarity with different learning strategies.	Course goes beyond memorization of information and has an extensive use and application component.	Biweekly tests and labs contain both memorization items and application items. They usually have problem solving questions that are based on real situations. They have to use the course publication: TABLE-CHARTS-MAPS when they take each biweekly test.
32. Awareness of personal learning styles.	The repetitive weekly pattern allows each student to develop more effective study pattern over a short time period which allows for them to determine how they will assimilate a given body of knowledge. They have the opportunity to experiment.	Often this involves discussion with the instructor about how to try other methods of learning a topic.
33. Other.