Interdisciplinary Oceanography: OCNG 401-500

OCNG 401-500: Interdisciplinary Oceanography

The following is the Fall 2008 SYLLABUS AND COURSE SYNOPSIS:

Quantitative survey of interdisciplinary relationships between biological, chemical, geological/geophysical and physical aspects of the ocean.

Outline of the Course: Click on the date to view Instructor's Notes:

Grading :

An exam will be given every three weeks during the semester. Each is designed to be answered in 50-minutes; these will be closed-book, closed-notes format. Each of these four exams counts 18% of your grade so together the four exams will count 72% of your grade. Homework assignments will count 18% of your grade, or the equivalent of a 5th exam; I'll assign one set of 2-3 homework problems during each week of the course. You may team with ONE other class member to work cooperatively on exams and take-home homework assignments, or you may answer exams and homework assignments individually. Class attendance will count the remaining 10% of your grade; during each lecture I'll send around a roll sheet for you to sign.

If you know in advance that you'll be gone on University business on exam day, I'll allow you to take the exam early. If you're sick or have a genuine emergency on test day, let me know no later than one hour BEFORE TEST IS GIVEN (call my cell phone: 979-219-4163) and I'll work with you to reschedule your taking of that exam.

If your exams scores average is < 70% after you've taken the first two exams, you may volunteer to give an oral report to the class during Week 14 to tie-in what you've learned in OCNG-401 with the recommendations of a recent National Ocean Commission report. For this report you'll be scored on a 10 point scale by your fellow students as well as by me. Your score on this oral report will add up to 10 bonus points to your score on the lowest of the first three exams.

Any of you may also elect to take an optional Final Exam, to be given Tuesday 9 Dec. This Final Exam will be comprehensive and will draw upon the material in Exams 1-4. If you elect to take it, your score on the Final Exam will replace your lowest score on one of the four regular exams.

Supporting Material :

Homework assignments will be hyper-linked to class dates. I'll tell you how to gain password-protected access to these homework assignments and othersummary material that is hyper-linked to each date in the course when we meet for the first class period, on Monday 25 August. Each of my Powerpoint lectures will also be available to you in PDF format on e-Reserves at Evans Library. Information copies of OCNG-401 exams that I gave when I last taught this class in Fall Semester 2007 have been scanned and as the semester progresses, I will link PDF files from these Fall 2007 exams to the appropriate exam dates on the Fall 2008 syllabus.

Copyright :

All materials generated for this class, which include but are not limited to this syllabus, outlines and notes that you can link to using this syllabus, in-class materials, and exams, are copyrighted. You do not have the right to redistribute any of these unless I expressly grant permission.

ADA statement:

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Department of Student Life, Services for Students with Disabilities in Room 126 of the Koldus Building. The phone number is 845-1637.

Academic honesty: Aggie Honor Code

Students in this class are expected to abide by the honor code: cheating will be penalized by loss of points or worse, in accordance with the University policies. The Honor Code, based on the long-standing affirmation that "An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do", is fundamental to the value of the A&M experience. Know the Code.

Plagiarism statement:

As commonly defined, plagiarism consists of passing off as one's own the ideas, words, writings, etc., which belong to another. In accordance with this definition, you are committing plagiarism if you copy the work of another person and turn it in as your own, even if you should have the permission of that person. Plagiarism is one of the worst academic sins, for the plagiarist destroys the trust among colleagues without which research cannot be safely communicated.