ATSC 113 Applied Meteorology
Weather for Sailing, Flying & Snow Sports

Evaluation

Overview:

Point diagrams
Rubrics on how some items are marked
Info about Old.Quiz and New.Quiz features in Canvas
Info about the term assignment ePortfolio
Midterms and Final exam
Policy on missed assignments
Requirements to pass this course

Point Diagrams

The Point diagram shows the max points that you can earn from each assignment. At the end of term, we add all of your points to get your raw point total. The maximum point total in the course is 1000. Your points are then scaled (divided by 10) to get a preliminary percentage score for the course. For example, 1000 points yields 100%, and 800 points yields 80%.

To pass this online course, you must earn a course percentage grade of 50% or higher AND pass the "individual" portion of the final exam with a percentage grade of 50% or higher. See details of "Requirements to Pass the Course" at the end of this web page.

Point diagram:

2024 Summer (May - Jun) <== CURRENT TERM

All required readings, assignments, quizzes, and midterm exams are online , except the Final Exam. See more info about exams below. Here are links to Quiz Tips and Exam Tips.

Details of Max Possible Points:

a. Orientation
(max possible raw marks) = (3 marks in Step3) + (roughly 43 marks in 4 quizzes) + (12 marks in Step6) + (6 marks in Step10).
All your marks in the orientation are summed, and divided by (the max possible marks) to give a percentage. This percentage is multipled by 5 (the orientation weight) to give the raw points that you earned for the orientation activities.

b. Raw Point Table for Modules A-C in Flying Weather and Snow-Sports Weather:

Step	Max Points
3 (questions to ask)	3
4 (quizzes on weather)	12*
6 (Reasoning 6 points + Decision 6 points)	12
10 (reflection & application)	6
Sum	33

* Different modules have different numbers of quiz questions in Step 4. Your raw points for Step 4 equals the number shown in the table above times the percentage correct of all your Step 4-quiz questions combined.

c. Raw Point Info for Module D in Flying and Snow Sports Weather:
Your points for Step 4 equals (15 points) times the percentage correct of all your Step-4 quiz questions combined. The midterm exam is worth 100 points.

d. Raw Point Table for Modules A-C in Sailing Weather

Step	Max Points
3 (questions to ask)	3
4 (quizzes on weather)	17*
6 (Reasoning 8 points + Decision 8 points)	16
10 (reflection & application)	8
Sum	44

* Different modules have different numbers of quiz questions in Step 4. Your points for Step 4 equals the number shown in the table above times the percentage correct of all your Step-4 quiz questions combined.

e. Raw Point Info for Module D in Sailing Weather:
Your points for Step 4 equals (20 points) times the percentage correct of all your Step-4 quiz questions combined. No midterm exam.

f. Raw Point Info for Applied Weather:
Step 3 is worth 3 marks. Your points for Step 4 equals 37 points times the percentage correct of all your Step-4 quiz questions combined.

g. Raw Point Info for the ePortfolio:
The ePortfolio term project is worth 55 points.

h. Raw Points for the Final Exam:
280 points for the individual portion of the exam, plus 40 points for the group portion of the exam.

As indicated in the point diagram, all the raw points are summed to a maximum 1000 points. The sum is divided by 10 to give your overall course average. CAUTION, your course grade depends on both the course average and your score on the individual final exam. See details in the Requirements to Pass the Course section near the end of this web page.

Rubrics for Grading Steps 3, 6 & 10.

Step 3
Step 6 - See info about "Old.Quiz" and "New.Quiz" below.
Step 10 - See info about "Old.Quiz" and "New.Quiz" below.

"Old.Quiz" and "New.Quiz" in Canvas

Canvas has two different quiz tools: "Old.Quiz" and "New.Quiz" . Although "New.Quiz" is a new tool and still has bugs, it allows me to award more marks to you.

Note that in Canvas, “New.Quiz” was formerly known as “Quiz.Next”, and that “Classic.Quiz” was formerly known as “Quiz”.

Here is an overview of the quizzes used in this course.

Step 3 quiz -> quiz tool. Students write short paragraph. Hand marked by TAs. Takes a long time to mark, so please be patient.
Step 4 quizzes -> quiz tool. Only one right answer for each question. Marked automatically and instantly by Canvas. You get two attempts. These are "formative" quizzes, where you can learn from your mistakes. If you get a wrong answer, it points you to the web page for the learning goal, so you can review the meteorological content before you attempt the quiz a second time.
Step 6 quizzes -> New.Quiz tool. Different answers are worth different points, as decided by experts. These are "summative" quizzes, in that you get only one attempt. They mimic real life (in flying, skiing, or sailing, if you make the wrong decision, you may be injured or die - - you don't get a second chance in real life). There are always one or more "best" answers worth full marks, and some questions have other "good" answers that are worth partial marks. The max possible (full) marks are indicated with each question. Automatically and instantly marked by Canvas. New.Quiz is a new tool in Canvas and still has some bugs -- for example, it displays all of your answers in Red colour, even though some of your answers could be fully or partially right. Ignore the colour and ignore the message from Canvas - - instead, judge the quality of your answer by the number of points you earned relative to the max points possible.
Step 10 quizzes -> New.Quiz tool. "Summative". Similar to step 6 quizzes.
ePortfolios -> ePortfolio tool. Hand-marked by TAs and instructors, based on the rubric given in the course web pages. Takes time. Please be patient.

For more info on summative vs. formative assessments, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formative_assessment#Versus_summative_assessment .

ePortfolio term assignment in Canvas

The ePortfolio is a term assignment where you create a web page with weather information and links that are relevant to a sport, activity, or business of your choosing. All the details about the ePortfolio assignment are found here:
https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/courses/atsc113/home/eportfolio.html

Midterm Exams

The 2 Midterm Exams are done online. These multiple choice questions are automatically marked by the computer. Only one best answer for each question. (1 mark for each correct response; 0 for incorrect responses). Total possible marks depends on the number of questions asked. The result is scaled into a percentage and applied to the points possible for that exam (see point tables above). Midterm exams are done by each student individually - - there is NO group component to the midterms. The midterm exams focus on the meteorological learning goals, not the case studies.

Final Exam

On-Campus Final Exam.

For the final exam, there is only one best answer for each question. (1 mark for each correct response; 0 for incorrect responses). Total possible marks depends on the number of questions asked. The result is scaled into a percentage and applied to the points possible for that exam (see point table above).

The On-Campus Final Exam date and time will be scheduled by UBC Exam Services near the middle of term.
Students write the final exam in-person, in a UBC classroom, invigilated in-person by course instructors and TAs. You will have an exam booklet with exam questions. You enter your answers on a bubble sheet by filling in the circle corresponding to the best answer for each question.

NOTE: The final exam has two parts, a component that you do INDIVIDUALLY and then turn in, AND an additional GROUP component that you work on in teams of 4 students each. You write both portions during the same 2.5 hour final-exam period as scheduled by UBC. The individual portion is the first 90 minutes (= 1.5 hours) of the exam period. Then, after a 10 minute health break, is the 50 minute group portion of the exam.

The individual portion counts 87.5% toward your final-exam grade, the group portion counts for the remaining 12.5% of the final exam grade. (However, see the section below about "Requirements to pass the course".) The group exam asks the same questions as the individual exam.

If you are sick on final exam day, do not attend the exam. You must follow up with your home faculty's advising office to apply for deferred standing: https://students.ubc.ca/enrolment/academic-learning-resources/academic-advising .

Students who are granted deferred standing write the final exam at a later date. If you're a Science student, you must apply for deferred standing (an academic concession) through Science Advising no later than 48 hours after the missed final exam. Learn more and find the application online: https://science.ubc.ca/students/advising/concession .

For additional information about academic concessions, see the UBC policy here: http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=3,329,0,0 .

Policy on Missed Assignments

Online quizzes: We do not offer quiz make-ups, and we do not re-open quizzes after their normal closing deadline. This applies to all of the quizzes within all the case-study modules. You earn zero marks on any missed assignments. Note that each individual quiz is worth only a very small percentage of the 1000 marks for this course.

Do not contact any of the course instructors or TAs if you are unable to write a few quizzes, regardless of the reason.

Caution: you are still responsible for learning the material that was tested on any quizzes you may have missed, as you prepare for midterm and final exams.

But if you miss a series of 8 or more consecutive quizzes due to illness or family emergency, then contact the undergrad advising office for your own faculty -- the advisors will make special arrangements with the course instructor (Dr. Doug McCollor).
Midterm exams: We do not offer midterm-exam make-ups, and we do not re-open midterm exams after their normal closing deadline. For students who miss a midterm exam due to illness or family emergency, you must contact the course instructor (Dr. Doug McCollor) via the Canvas InBox tool to declare your special situation.

For approved cases, we will backfill the missing midterm grade with the final exam grade (individual portion). Caution: The final exam is cumulative, so you are still responsible for learning all the material associated with the midterm exam that you missed.
Final exam: Students who miss the final exam in this course due to illness or extreme personal distress and would like to apply for a deferred exam must submit a request for an academic concession within 48 hours of the missed exam.
Refer to the UBC Exam Issues site for details on applying for a deferred exam: https://science.ubc.ca/students/advising/exams .

Passing the final exam is one of the requirements for passing this online course. See details below.

Requirements to Pass the Course

To pass the course, you must:

pass the individual portion of the final exam (i.e., earn a grade of at least 50%),
AND
earn a total course score of at least 50%.

The way this is implemented is as follows.

If both your individual-final-exam grade AND your total-course grade are 50% or greater, then you pass the course. Your total-course grade will be submitted to the registrar.
If either your individual-final-exam grade OR your total-course grade is below 50%, then you failed the course. The lowest of those two grades is submitted to the UBC registrar as your overall course grade.
If both your individual-final-exam and total-course grades are below 50%, then you failed the course. Your total course grade is submitted as your overall course grade.
If you Did Not Write (DNW) the final exam, then a zero is submitted as your overall course grade regardless of total course grade that you earned.

Students often ask us why they must pass the individual portion of the final exam. This requirement applies to most of the online / distance-education courses at UBC, regardless of the department and course number. The reason is that we instructors are unable to verify that the person who does online work is the actual student who registered for the course. Only during the final exam do we meet each student, check their ID, and verify that the registered student is the person who is writing the exam. Because the final exam is comprehensive (covers all the learning goals in all themes), this ensures that the actual person who registered for the course has learned the material.

UBC ATSC 113 Weather for Sailing, Flying & Snow Sports

Last modification: 1 May 2024

ATSC 113 Applied Meteorology Weather for Sailing, Flying & Snow Sports