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



Welcome Students

This course is designed for "super-connected" university students like you.  If you ...
- use smartphone connectivity to enhance your life,
- feel your time is precious,
- prefer course work that is split into a larger number of shorter assignments to fit better in-between your other online activities,
- want a clear path forward with no surprises,
- want flexibility of due dates within well defined time windows,
- want the opportunity to be successful even if life's adventures cause you to miss an assignment or two.
Then ATSC 113 is designed for you.
Doug
My name is Doug McCollor -- I am the instructor and course administrator.  I am delighted that you are interested in this course.

Here is a video to enjoy highlighting ATSC 113.

We designed ATSC 113 to be a fun way to learn more about the weather, as applied to case-studies in sailing, flying, and snow sports.  Each week we explore a new case study, where we put you in the virtual "driver's seat" as the skipper, pilot, or snowboarder/skier.  Most of the case studies are for southwestern Canada near Vancouver, with a few elsewhere in North America.

All of the course content is online, except the final exam. The readings, quizzes, midterm exams, and discussion boards are all online. Even the ePortfolio term project assignment is online. Only the final exam must be written in person on the UBC campus.

This course is a fully asynchronous course. Namely, there are no "lecture" times that you must attend online. Instead, we provide multi-day windows within which you can do the online work.

ATSC 113 is a one-term course. To take the course in Spring term, students register for section 99C. For summer term, students register in section 98A. For Fall term, students register in term 99A.

If you require accommodations for accessibility needs, please contact the Centre for Accessibility or your Enrolment Services Advisor.

We can also recommend other exciting first-year courses in our department that are still open for registration until the end of the normal add/drop period.

Below is more info about ATSC 113.   Again, welcome.

- Dr. Doug McCollor 

Resources

Please use the following two sources of online course material:
  1. The most important web page for this course is our departmental website home page (the website you are in now): 
    https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/courses/atsc113/ .
    Please bookmark the URL listed above, which points to the home page. The Schedule link from the home page tells you when assignments are due, and the Evaluation link shows how much each assignment is worth. There is no textbook for this course -- all the content is provided free online via the Learning_Goals link from the home page. A Getting_Started link has info and videos so that each of you has the opportunity to be successful.

  2. The Canvas course management system has the: case-study Modules, Quizzes, and your grades.  Canvas first becomes available to you and other registered students on the first day of term.  Please bookmark it: https://canvas.ubc.ca .
    You should use your campus-wide login (CWL) to access this course on Canvas. Here is a link to some video guides to help you learn how to use Canvas.
    Each module in Canvas will point you to the appropriate content and quizzes as you progress through the case study.

    ==> To start this course at the start of term, open Canvas for this course, click on the "Modules" tab in the left frame in Canvas, and select the first module "Orientation - page 1".
     

On the departmental home page for this course is a link to the SCHEDULE of assignments.  There is a regular cadence to the assignments in this course, as shown in the Schedule. Most of the learning modules slightly OVERLAP with each other. This overlap of time windows gives you a bit more time and flexibility to complete each of the module pages.  Please take some time to carefully examine the SCHEDULE page, or perhaps even print and/or download the pdf SCHEDULE to your own device, so you will always know when the module pages will be available and when assignments are due.  CAUTION: Please use the SCHEDULE for the correct term.

During the first several days of the term, you will need to complete the online Orientation activities found on the "Canvas" learning management system. It is important that you participate in these orientation activities, to ensure that you know how to use all of the online tools you will need for assignments.  Again, the GETTING STARTED videos on our departmental website for this course will guide you through the Orientation activities. For those of you who add the course within the first week at the start of term, we will keep the orientation activities open longer for you.  By doing the Orientation (which are worth marks towards your overall grade), it gives you and your classmates equal opportunity to be successful.



UBC ATSC 113 Weather for Sailing, Flying & Snow Sports
Copyright © 2015-2023 by Roland Stull and Doug McCollor
Last modification: 5 Oct 2023
.