Western Kentucky University / G / Gregory B. Goodrich

Dr. Goodrich hates people who slack off and don't work your hardest. He can sniff you out from a mile away. He does, however, enjoy students who give a good effort all of the time. It should be noted that there is little middle ground between him hating 'dumb' people and enjoying smart kids, sooooo, make sure you're on the right side of the line from the very beginning. The concepts are tough and this is essentially a science-type class, but the topics are cool and you learn a bunch if you choose to. For non-science inclined folks, I'd say an A would be nearly impossible. Great lecturer who presents information on powerpoints and you can print off abbreviated versions of the ppts online and follow along in class.

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.

Great teacher who knows what he's talking about. Class was really interesting but his tests were difficult. He does set a curve at the end of the semester. If you do all the labs and average a B on them and do 70 and above on the tests then you'll get a B in the class. Really have to work though.

Goodrich is a true meteorologist! He really knows his stuff and breaks the synoptic meteorology material down to you to the point that you can understand it. His tests are a bit difficult, but he curves his test. Overall, he is a good professor who is reconstructing the meteorology program at WKU. The new meteorology program should be in place Fall 2007.

Dr. Goodrich seemed really interested in his subject, but he is NOT a good teacher. He concentrates more on the fact that some people don't attend class rather than helping you understand the subject. I was out with tonsilitis for 1 class period and we had a quiz and he doesn't let you make them up unless you missed because of something related to SCHOOL. such as if you were in the football team and you had a special meeting or something. SICKNESS isn't even excused. If you want to take intro to geography, DON'T take Dr. Goodrich!!!

There are numerous terms and equations that are used in this class. You have to come to class and read/skim through the material to understand what is being presented to the class. There is also a lab to go along with this class.