EXTRA CREDIT

Extra credit in this course can be earned by researching and writing a 4-6 page paper that relates to one of the following subject areas:

• Weather in History

  - The student must describe an important historical event that was influenced by the weather or climate. A discussion of how the weather or climate affected the event as well as a thorough description of the event is required.
  

  
  

  
  

• Personal History

  - The student must describe a personal encounter with a weather phenomenon that affected the student's life. Here it is particularly important to include a discussion of the physics of the chosen weather event by relating its occurrence and characteristics to what you've learned about the behavior of the atmosphere in class.
  

  
  

• You may choose a different subject matter that I do not list here but if you do so, you MUST discuss your idea with me first for approval.

The paper must be type-written, in grammatically correct English, and must be turned in no later than Friday, April 25. YOU CANNOT USE UNREFEREED MATERIALS SUCH AS WIKIPEDIA OR SIMILAR INTERNET-BASED DOCUMENTS AS YOUR RESEARCH SOURCES. The paper MUST NOT be only a description of a weather event, or of a historical event,etc. You must incorporate elements of what has been, or will be, covered in class (or some other meteorological/climatological issue) into your report - regardless of topic. This will constitute a major factor in the grading.

The grade earned on this research paper will be used to adjust your lowest in-class exam score by counting as 5/9 of your lowest exam grade. In other words, if you received a 60% (18 correct answers) on Exam 1 and you receive a 90% on your extra-credit report, I will adjust your Exam 1 score by the following formula

(4/9 x 60) + (5/9 x 90) = 76.7 or 23 correct answers

In such a case, your Exam 1 letter grade moves from a D to a high BC.

It is important to note that while the extra-credit paper is designed to increase your grade, a poorly written, badly researched, incomplete or plagiarized paper could work against you by the same formula. If you received a 76% (23 correct) on Exam 1 and turn in a paper that I grade as a 65%, your Exam 1 grade actually decreases!! Therefore, if you plan to use this extra-credit opportunity, be sure to give me a good HONEST effort for your own sake. Please resist the temptation to plagiarize the work of others!!! If I see plagiarism in ANY degree the paper will be given a grade of ZERO and your exam grade will really suffer!!

You can send me questions, comments or concerns.