This ongoing course will focus on an introduction of meteorological concepts and tools used in real life for weather forecasting. There will be an emphasis on real-life usage of these forecast concepts based on the teacher’s experience as an Aviation Meteorologist and as a STEM certified Arizona teacher. The core material is based on the textbook, Meteorology Today, An Introduction to Weather, Climate, and the Environment 12th Edition by C. Donald Aherns and Robert Henson. (No purchase is necessary) This will be supplemented by PowerPoint slides, and weather tools such as Windy.com and WeatherTap. The focus will be on weather concepts and not high-level math or calculations. Only basic math is needed in this course. The students will experience weather topics with personal interaction and engagement. This will enhance student learning to apply the concepts, retain the learning, and continue to build on the concepts.

The learning will drive student inquiry throughout this course and the students will have multiple opportunities to interact with the teacher throughout this course. Engagement is highly encouraged and enhances student learning and makes the material come alive. Additionally, the course goal is to help introduce students to see real life usage of these weather-related concepts, encourage exploring science related career fields especially in meteorology, aviation, or other fields of scientific study.

The first 5 minutes- Welcoming of students. Learners are welcome to ask questions and clarify their understanding from the previous class. This will help to solidify and continue to build on the learning of the concepts discussed in class. However, each class is individual and distinct and not directly built on from the previous class.

The next 45 minutes the teacher will share concepts from the textbook, use PowerPoint slide presentations, or online weather websites to learn and explore the concepts with real world examples. Students are encouraged to discuss and ask questions to make the class more interactive. 

The last 5 minutes students will share their learning with the class, review the topic, discuss, and ask relevant and essential questions and wrap up the class.

The topics covered during the course:

Meteorology & Forecasting Tools
8 Jan 2025 Week 1: Energy, Temperature, and Heat Concepts
15 Jan 2025 Week 2: Humidity, Water Cycle, Dew Point, Vapor Pressure
22 Jan 2025 Week 3: Formation of Fog and Condensation Nuclei  
29 Jan 2025 Week 4: Cloud Classification, Cloud Levels, Descriptions, and Surface Observations
5 Feb 2025 Week 5: Atmospheric Stability, Equilibrium, Parcel Movement, Skew-T Diagrams
11 Feb 2025 Week 6: Precipitation, Collision & Coalescence, Ice-Crystal formation, Accretion, Cloud Seeding 
19 Feb 2025 Week 7: Atmospheric Pressure, Diurnal Changes, Units of Pressure, Altimeter, Barometers 
26 Feb 2025 Week 8: Wind and Physical Forces, PGF, Coriolis Force, Centripetal Force, Friction
5 Mar 2025 Week 9: Jet streams, Polar Front Jet, Subtropical Jet, Zonal vs Meridional Flow
12 Mar 2025 Week 10: Frontal Systems, Cold, Warm, Stationary, Occluded, and Airmasses
19 Mar 2025 Week 11: Mid-Latitude Cyclones, Frontal Wave, Baroclinicity, Low Source Regions
26 Mar 2025 Week 12: Vertical Structure of a Low and High and Upper-level Wind Flow 
2 Apr 2025 Week 13: Forecasting Tools, Metars, Satellite, RADAR, NCEP Models
9 Apr 2025 Week 14: Thunderstorms, Types, Development, and Precipitation and Convective Winds
16 Apr 2025 Week 15: Tornadoes, Funnel Clouds, Tornado Alley, and Fujita Scale, Formation
23 Apr 2025 Week 16: Tropical Systems, Streamlines, Tropical Waves, Hurricane Climatology
30 Apr 2025 Week 17: Tropical Systems II, Hurricane Movement, Storm Surge, Notable Hurricanes