| General Information |
| Professor: |
Gregory Goodrich |
| Course: |
GEOG 121 |
| Course Title: |
Introduction To Meteorology |
| Student Grade: |
A |
| Post Date: |
5:03:46 PM 5/10/2007 |
| Overall Rating: |
Good  |
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| Exam Information |
| Exam Content: |
 Multiple Choice
 Matching
True/False
Fill in the Blank
Essay
Problem Solving
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| Mandatory Final: |
Yes |
| Cumulative Final: |
No |
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| Other Information |
| Textbook Required: |
Yes |
| Extra Credit Available: |
Yes |
| Attendance Required: |
Yes |
| Quantity of Notes: |
Moderate |
| Difficulty: |
Difficult |
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| Additional Comments |
I took this class for general education credit and initially thought it would be simple but I was dead wrong. You might think this class is going to talk about tornadoes, hurricanes, and all of those other crazy weather systems but this class is much more than that. This course requires some basic math skills and also requires you to learn some physics to do well. For someone like me that is not a genius at either of those things the first few weeks of this class were intimidating but I was able to navigate through it and get an A.
Dr. Goodrich is a really smart and cool guy when it comes to meteorology (he even got cited on ESPN.com for a study he did about baseball weather) and I found his lectures to be very interesting. Sometimes he has a tendency to go really fast though and that can make getting the notes down from the PowerPoints he uses plus any additional comments that you have to jot down notes for difficult. However, since this is a lab course each day's worth of lecture was only 55 minutes long so lecture always seemed to end right after it began. We also had two graduate assistants in this class who taught the chapters on tornadoes and hurricanes and they did a decent job considering that they were both nervous over teaching the class.
The grade breakdown for this class is out of a total of 400 points. You have three tests (including a non-cumulative final) that are worth 100 points each, a lab grade you have to complete every week that is out of a total of 80 points, and then five random attendance grades worth 5 points each day for a total of 20 points. This means you can only miss 40 points to get an A at a minimum BUT Dr. Goodrich curves grades at the end of the semester. For our class it was 88-100% constituted an A.
To do well in this class I'd recommend reading the textbook before or after lecture because it helps to reinforce the material. Also, learn some shorthand so you can get down all the notes and study them before the test. The majority of questions on the tests reflect more of what is said in lecture but the book can help you reason out some of the answers on the test. Also, you will need the textbook to do the lab because all of the quizzes reflect it and the material in the lab. If you can get an A overall in the lab that can make up for a bad test grade so do not blow it off like some people do.
For extra credit Dr. Goodrich allows you to play a forecast game where you predict the weather for sporting events throughout the semester (ex. the Super Bowl, NBA games, etc.). All you have to do is predict the temperature and e-mail it to him by every Friday at 5:00. The top 10 people each week earn points that add up and at the end of the semester the top 10 people in overall points from the forecast game get from 20-2 extra credit points. This is REALLY EASY AND MAKE SURE TO PLAY EVERY WEEK because can help you make up some points on the tests.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class but it is not easy and if you are looking for easy general education credit this is not the class for you. However, if you are interested in weather and are willing to put some time and effort into this class you will really enjoy Dr. Goodrich and I'd highly recommend him to you.
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