DIRECTIONS FOR THE GEOG 431/531 CONTINENT WEBPAGE PROJECT:
The goal of the project is to prepare a webpage to describe and explain the climate of your continent in a unique and instructive way.
Here is an overview of how it will work:
As a class, we will decide on a common format or template for our webpages.
Dr. H will start things out (with the class's help) by constructing the page for South America as a "model."
Students in each group will then work collaboratively to create the webpage for their assigned continent by: collecting data, constructing climographs and figures, creating NCEP Reanalysis maps, searching out images, photos and other supplementary information, and writing explanatory text.
Dr H will assist each group in getting the page into MS Frontpage format and posting it in a separate webspace section that will be attached to our GEOG 431/531 Class webpage.
As your groups create graphs, maps, images, etc. you will deposit them in the appropriate continent folder within the file named "CONTINENT WEBS" located on our geog431001 ILC server space, using the SSH Secure File Transfer utility.
The basic format of the webpages will include the following:
a map of the continent divided into the Trewartha climate types (Dr H will provide digital-image or hard copy maps for you)
key physiographic features that may have an influence on the climate (e.g. a topographic maps showing major mountain ranges, river basins, etc.; can be obtained from various mapping websites, or scanned)
the important seasonal sea level and upper level pressure patterns for the continent that help to explain the seasonal climate variations (construct from the NCEP reanalysis data)
other maps (from the NCEP Reanalysis or obtained elsewhere) that illustrate important geographic patterns of climatic elements or processes. (e.g. whole-continent precipitation, temperature maps, winds, preciptable water, maps of tropical storm tracks, maps of extratropical storm tracks, teleconnections, etc. etc. etc. -- Dr H will have the URLs for some good sites listed on the class webpage, but you should search out your own as well.)
climographs of temp and precip for several locations on the continent. You should have at least one graph for each of the major climate types, and may need several graphs to explain the important variation within some of the larger Trewartha regions. The graphs should be constructed in Excel from available climate data obtained from the web or elsewhere.
process-based explanations for each of the major Trewartha types and the seasonal distribution of temperature and precipitation shown in the climographs (see the South America for an example of what this might look like). These could be text explanations hyperlinked to each climograph with a typical synoptic chart added, etc. etc.
photos, images, eye-witness accounts, etc. etc. etc. -- any other neat information that you can dig up and attach to the webpage to explain the interesting climate areas on your continent.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The GEOG 431 students assigned to each group will be primarily responsible for the group's continent webpage. Each student's respective contributions will be documented in a series of interim due dates for different "deliverables" related to the project.
At least one GEOG 531 graduate student will be assigned to each continent group as well. The grads will help "oversee" the project and work to some degree with the GEOG 431 students on the design, data gathering and webpage construction process, but they will also have some unique duties as part of their participation in the webpage project. (Note that grads will also be working on their own research projects for the course which, if appropriate, can be linked to one of the continent pages as a special project "subsection." )
The work should be divided up evenly among the team depending on interest and computer and/or web-related skills.
Grade: Your grade will be a combination of the overall grade for your group's webpage, weighted by your individual contribution to it (based on a self-grade and peer-grade process.)
Technical Help with Webpages:
Dr H will help you with technical matters related to your webpage if you do not have a webpage expert in your group -- or even if you do. If you do not have access to a scanner, etc. you can arrange to use hers. See her to link up your page to the class webpage and for any other technical issues that arise. You should designate one person in your group to be "Technical Manager" and that person should take the lead in addressing and troubleshooting any of the webpage technical issues that come up.
Planning and Interim Reports:
Time for short planning meetings will be given in class and the rest can be done via email or extra-class meetings.
To keep you on schedule, specific deliverables will be due on assigned dates and interim progress reports will be posted to the WebCT Discussion Board (under your continent's name) on or before the following dates: Mar 28, April 4, April 11, April 18, and April 25. Students should take turns posting the reports and they should include a short description of what you've done so far, and who has done it and what your next step is. The whole class will be reading these postings, so it's a great opportunity to make your group "look good!" I will also post to the board with my comments or suggestions.
Final Oral Reports:
Your completed webpages are due at the end of the semester on either Monday May 5th or Wednesday May 7th. (We'll schedule the presentations on two days.) Your group will make a joint presentation of the webpage to the rest of the class and answer any questions about the climatic patterns or processes on your continent. These reports will be a great "summary session" for the entire course.
GEOG 531 STUDENTS:
Here are some suggestions for your individual projects that could be combined with a continent webpage. You are also encouraged to develop your own project, using these suggestions as a guideline for the scope of your project. You should write up a short (2-3 page) proposal outlining what you'd like to do by Wed March 26. Include an outline and/or sketch of what the finished project/product might look like and how it might be linked to one of the continent webpages.
Teleconnection Option
Select one or more teleconnections that impacts your continent (e.g. ENSO, NAO, etc. etc.)
Learn all you can about that teleconnection and examine its behavior for the climate of your continent specifically
Using the NCEP Reanalysis Data and indices of your teleconnection, construct maps of individual years and seasons that are supposed to be teleconnected on your continent to a given index and evaluate how well the individual years/seasons exhibit the overall teleconnection pattern.
Write a summary paper about the teleconnection and how it behaves on your continent, illustrating it with graphs, maps, and tables that you have constructed as part of your analysis.
Integrate what you've learned with the appropriate continent's webpage and add the information to it.
Global Flooding Option
Go to the Dartmouth Flood Observatory (DFO) webpage at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/artsci/geog/floods/ and under Flood Archives, identify all the major floods that have occurred on your group's continent during the years that have been mapped (not all years listed have completed maps yet). Pick several major floods to investigate in more detail, or 2-3 years of floods in sequence.
Find out all you can about what caused the flood and how this relates to the Trewartha climate region it is in. The "Flood Hydroclimatology" and "Flood Climates" papers you've read will help you here, as well as newspaper accounts and what is already on the DFO webpage.
Construct NCEP Reanalysis maps of the months/weeks/days surrounding the floods to assess the hydroclimtological and hydrometeorological cause of each flood in your list.
Write a summary paper about the nature of flooding and how it behaves on your continent, illustrating it with graphs, maps, and tables that you have constructed as part of your analysis.
Integrate what you've learned with your group's webpage and add the information to it.