MEMORANDUM OF REQUEST
To:
Curriculum Committees (all levels of review)
From:
Drs. Tom Rickenbach, Scott Curtis, Rosana Nieto-Ferreira, and Hong-Bing Su
Atmospheric Science Group, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment
Date:
RE:
September 26, 2013
Applied Atmospheric Science (AAS) undergraduate curricular changes summary, Department of
Geography, Planning and Environment
The faculty of the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment submits for your consideration the following
changes to its curriculum related to the Applied Atmospheric Science (AAS) Bachelor of Science undergraduate degree
program. This package was approved by the THCAS Curriculum Committee on Sept. 17, 2013.
1. Establishment of ATMO course prefix. Our department’s faculty voted on Feb. 11, 2013 to
pursue the establishment of the ATMO course prefix for core and elective courses in the Applied
Atmospheric Science (AAS) BS degree program. Justification: The Department of Geography,
Planning, and Environment began offering the AAS degree in Fall 2010. Since then, the major has
been a success. AAS currently has 20 majors, while the first student with a BS in AAS graduated in
Spring 2013. The addition of the ATMO prefix for the AAS courses is important to the program for
several reasons. The ATMO course prefix will benefit our AAS majors. This is because courses with the
ATMO on their transcripts are clearly identified as STEM atmospheric science courses, which will
make the students more marketable when competing for jobs with students from traditional
Atmospheric Science departments. It should be noted that the AAS-BS degree is categorized as a
STEM major at ECU, while Geography is considered a social science discipline. We therefore
anticipate that ATMO courses will be classified as Category III (natural science) with regard to the
FTES funding formula. The ATMO prefix will also make the Applied Atmospheric Science degree
program much more visible to students and to the ECU community, since this degree is housed in a
department of a different name (Geography, Planning and Environment). Finally, with five degree
programs in both social science and natural science offered in a multidisciplinary department, the
ATMO prefix will serve to clearly identify AAS courses to our majors. The ATMO prefix was approved
for our use on March 8, 2013 by the Office of Academic Program Planning and Development.
2. Cross-listing of non-calculus based ATMO courses with GEOG prefix. We propose to cross-list
with GEOG those ATMO courses that do not have a prerequisite of calculus. ATMO courses that
require calculus will be designated with the ATMO prefix only. Justification: One of the challenges for
attracting interested students to the degree program, and for increasing the AAS program’s visibility
to our faculty colleagues across campus and outside ECU, is that the atmospheric science courses are
housed within a multidisciplinary department (as reflected by its new name ‘Geography, Planning
and Environment’). In practical terms, this makes the atmospheric science curriculum difficult to find
in the ECU Undergraduate Catalog because the atmospheric science courses have the GEOG prefix
designation. For example, if a prospective student searches the catalog under ‘courses’ to see if
atmospheric science courses are offered at ECU, they may conclude that none are offered since
atmospheric science courses fall under the GEOG prefix. From a perusal in the catalog of academic
programs at ECU, students or faculty would have to search within several departments where
atmospheric science courses might potentially reside (for example, Physics, Geology, Geography, or
Civil and Environmental Engineering). We would like to facilitate prospective students and our
colleagues across campus to find our atmospheric science offerings more easily in the Undergraduate
Catalog. In addition, we would like to better promote the existence of atmospheric science courses to
other units on campus who may be interested in having their students take these courses, or to
include some of these courses as cognates in their own degree programs.
Currently all AAS core and elective courses are designated with the GEOG prefix. Many of the noncalculus AAS core and elective courses are part of the environmental geography concentration area
of our other degree programs. We would like to make it very clear to students in the BA in
Geography, BS in Applied Geography, and BS in GIST degree programs that these AAS courses are
accessible to them, even though they are part of the Applied Atmospheric Science degree program.
Retaining the GEOG prefix for those courses, and cross-listing them with the ATMO prefix, ensures
that all Geography students continue to perceive them as available and accessible GEOG courses
while clearly identifying them as ATMO courses to our AAS majors. At the same time, those ATMO
courses with a calculus requirement are challenging to most other Geography and Planning students
because calculus is not required in the other degree programs. The calculus-based (ATMO) courses
will not be cross-listed with GEOG, and thus are clearly identified as courses for AAS majors though
available for all interested students. It is important to note that all of these courses already exist.
In summary, we will retain the GEOG prefix for the existing non-calculus based courses and crosslist them with the new ATMO prefix. We will change the prefix of the existing calculus-based
courses to ATMO. The specific changes are summarized below.
Course, Title, s.h. Credit
Old Prefix
New Prefix
Retain both prefix
for cross listing?
GEOG 1300 Weather and Climate (4)
GEOG
ATMO
yes
GEOG 3230 Global Climates (3)
GEOG
ATMO
yes
GEOG 3510* Physical Meteorology (3)
GEOG
ATMO
yes
*number change to 2510 is part of this package
GEOG 3520 Dynamic Meteorology (3)
GEOG
ATMO
no
GEOG 3550 Principles of Synoptic Meteorology (3) GEOG
ATMO
no
GEOG 4510 Meteorological Instruments
and Observation (3)
GEOG
ATMO
yes
GEOG 4520 Boundary Layer Meteorology (3)
GEOG
ATMO
no
GEOG 4525 Dynamic Meteorology II (3)
GEOG
ATMO
no
GEOG 4530 Micrometeorology (3)
GEOG
ATMO
yes
GEOG 4540 Coastal Storms (3)
GEOG
ATMO
yes
Analysis and Forecasting (3)
GEOG
ATMO
no
GEOG 4580 Radar and Satellite Meteorology (3)
GEOG
ATMO
yes
GEOG 4590 Tropical Meteorology (3)
GEOG
ATMO
yes
GEOG 4550 Applied Synoptic Meteorology:
3. Renumber a core ATMO course to 2000 level. Currently the AAS curriculum has no 2000 level
core courses. We will renumber GEOG/ATMO 3510 (Physical Meteorology) to 2510, to emphasize
that this course is the key “bridge” course between the introductory foundations course
GEOG/ATMO 1300 (Weather and Climate), and the 3000-4000 level AAS courses.
4. Course prerequisite changes. ATMO 4520 (Boundary Layer Meteorology, currently GEOG 4520)
was created in 2004 before the BS degree in Applied Atmospheric Science started in Fall 2010. This
course requires students to have prior knowledge of the fundamental principles and governing
equations of atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics, which are covered in ATMO 3520
(Dynamic Meteorology). The proposed prerequisite would save the time that has been used to cover
the fundamental dynamic and thermal dynamic principles and equations to teach students more
topics specific to the atmospheric boundary layers. The primary audience of these two courses would
be majors in BS in Applied Atmospheric Science or students in other STEM majors such as physics and
engineering who meet the prerequisite.
5. Banked courses. We propose to bank GEOG 4570 (Hydrometeorology) and GEOG 4560 (Urban
Climatology). These courses have not been taught in the past several years, and the department lacks
the faculty to teach it now and in the foreseeable future.
Attachments (14 files):
Marked Catalog Copy
ATMO 1300 course proposal form
GEOG 2510 course proposal form (renumber from GEOG 3510)
ATMO 2510 course proposal form
ATMO 3230 course proposal form
ATMO 4510 course proposal form
ATMO 4530 course proposal form
ATMO 4540 course proposal form
ATMO 4580 course proposal form
ATMO 4590 course proposal form
Signature Form
Memorandum from Department Chair on Budgetary Implications
Communication from Office of Academic Program Planning and Development, approving new ATMO
prefix.
Communication from Office of the Registrar, confirming availability of course numbers.