Evaluation / Grading Method - 2026

(This is the weighting of assignments and tests. There might be some updates/edits before the first class meeting.)

Assignment Weights toward overall course grade

15% Lab assignments & Written homework
20% Daily (10-minute) weather briefings - by teams of 2 or 3 students
15% Midterm Exam (individual only)
25% Capstone Project:
        20% Fire-scenario presentation (45 minutes including 5 minutes for questions)- by groups of roughly 4 to 8 students
                (the rubic below has details on Capstone expectations)
         5% Capstone Narrative Report (see details below) / a written group report based on the Fire-scenario presentation
25% Final Exam = 20% individual exam (roughly 90 minutes) + 5% group exam (roughly 45 minutes)
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100% Total overall course grade

As this is an in-person course, students don’t need to pass the final exam to pass the whole course — instead they need an overall course grade of 50% or higher.

Capstone Project - expectations

Here is an overview of Capstone Project., including the overall objective, presentation guidelines, presentation structure, assessment rubric, and other tips.

For a demo, see the zoom recording made by Jalena Bennett for the Sparks Lake fire, in the Fire_Cases section of this course.

The capstone report is based on the case-study Fire-scenario presentation by your group. Although your presentation slides will accompany your capstone report, your capstone grade will also be based on the written narrative described below.

1. In your fire-case presentation, number each of your slides if you haven't already. Also, include the person's name who presents each slide in a lower corner on each slide.
2. Provide the instructors with a link to the electronic version of your presentation slides. These could be as PowerPoint, Keynote, Google, or pdf slides.
3. Try to not have multiple builds/transitions or overlapping images on any one slide; instead, create separate slides for each build, so that a pdf printout of your presentation will show all the required images.
4. For all movies, provide a full URL link to the movie, either on the same slide as the embedded movie, or in a bibliography at the end of the report. Again, this is so students who missed your presentation can see all the movies.
5. Via a separate word.doc, google.doc or similar, write a very short narrative or script to accompany each slide, using the same numbering as your slides. This narrative can be bullet points or outline format -- up to you. Aim for roughly 1 to 5 bullet points per slide. (You don't need to copy images of the slides to your report because we will have access to your presentation slides electronically.) Also, submit this narrative document electronically as a word.doc, google.doc or pdf file.
6. The different sections of this doc should be written by the different students who presented those sections to the class, but all students should follow a common template or style agreed upon by all of you in the group. The author of each section should be included with the section title. You should decide on a common style or template ahead of time.
7. The full package (written narrative document and copy of your presentation slides) should be submitted electronically (emailed by one member of the group to the instructors, or uploaded to Canvas) within a week after your presentation date. (Exceptions can be made if the due date conflicts with final exams.)

Grading of the Capstone Narrative report ( to accompany a copy of the presentation slides) are listed in the Rubrics below:

1. The completeness and accuracy (meteorology, fire, societal/economic impact) of the full package (written narrative and the presentation slides). (50%)
2. The cohesiveness of the sections to the smooth flow of the whole narrative document. (i.e., it is not a disjointed collection of independent scripts). (25%)
3. The ability of a hypothetical student who missed your presentation to read the narrative while viewing the presentation slides and gain as full an understanding of the fire and weather situation as was gained by students who actually attended the presentation. (25%)

See capstone-report rubric (below) for details.

It is expected that all members of each capstone group will contribute roughly equally.  Students who don't participate, based on an evaluation by their groupmates, will have their overall capstone points reduced (see rubric).      

Grading Rubrics

Short (10 minute) daily weather briefings by pairs of students:
• Rubric as a pdf file.
• See Met.Concepts section mc08 for tips and an example on how to give a good briefing.

Capstone Project:
• Long (roughly 45 minutes) fire-scenario presentation including weather discussion by student groups: Rubric as a pdf file . 
  Grade% = (50/53)· [ As(Pg) + At(Pg)+ As(Pi) + At(Pi) ] ,  (see example at end of this page)
       where
      As is average over all student peer evaluators,
      At is average over all teacher evaluators (profs + TA'),
      Pg is the group points out of 50 from the student peers or from the teachers, and
      Pi is individual points out of 3 from the student peers or from the teachers.  
• Written Narrative report on the assigned fire case and associated meteorology, which refers to, and includes, a copy of the presentation slides: Rubric as a pdf file.
• For excellent examples, see the capstone projects from 2023. You can find then under the Fire_Cases tab, then scroll down to year 2023.

Exams: Grading rubric as a pdf file.

Example of capstone presentation grade.   
   Suppose you were a member of  Team Alpha, who presented on the Pacific Spirit Park Fire.  

• The other students in the class (i.e., your peers) gave group scores that averaged 47 points (out of 50 max possible). 
• The teachers (professors, and TA if present) gave group scores that averaged 43 points (out of 50 max possible).    
• The other students in the class gave you individual scores that averaged 2.8 (out of 3 max possible). The teachers gave you individual scores that averaged 2.6 (out of 3 max possible).      

Your capstone presentation grade%  = (50 / 53) · [47 + 43 + 2.8 + 2.6]  =  90 .

Links to evaluation weights in previous years:
2026 ,
2025 ,
2024 ,
2023 .
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