Climatology!

My online class, EC311U Climatology, has been going for just over a week now. There is a lot of reading and PowerPoint lectures, and many short writing assignments. All of the reading is online, except for the one book I had to buy (I found a used hardback at Powell's for less than $11).

Lesson one writing included a 250 word minimum personal introduction and our current state of "climate literacy". The written assignments were the results of online data examination from various sources concerning temperature and precipitation in the US, the Pacific Northwest, Oregon, and Portland. There was also a 100 word assignment and three 150 word assignments, the last of which I want to try to get done later today. The writing is due by Saturday, but I want to get started on the next lesson and be well into the third one by the time my second summer class starts. That way I can slack off a bit in this class while I'm in the other one. At least that's the plan. There will be an online short essay test at the end of this week. I think we have a total of 4 tests.

We have already covered a lot of material about general climate change, climate models, Earth/Sun relationships, and the composition and structure of the atmosphere that has been very informative. I'm already filling in gaps of my own that I have been wondering about for a long time. Lesson two will cover more on Sun/Earth relationships, energy and radiation, and global temperature patterns. There is a lot to read, but only two writing assignments - one 500 word minimum on climate blogs and one 300 word minimum on the book we are reading. I've chosen to read Science as a Contact Sport and it has been very interesting and readable so far. I'm about 1/3 of the way through it. All of the writing assignments have a great deal of reading associated with them. I'm also finding it difficult to keep my writing near the minimum requirement. Going over is OK, but only to a certain point. It takes a bit of skill and effort to strip away as much filler as you can but still coherently convey the required information.

Here's to learning more about our climate!

***I also got my macroeconomics book in the mail today so I can start reading some of that in preparation for the first week of that class (July 23). Sorry, Mom, but I'll be pretty busy most of the time you are here. Classes 4 days a week and an exam every week for a month plus my online class.