General Syllabus for

MET3940 WEATHERCASTING

Instructor: Jon Ahlquist, ahlquist@met.fsu.edu

Office:

TV studio:

Course description (taken from the FSU General Bulletin):

Prerequisite of MET1010 or corequisite of MET2700. Practice in preparing and presenting weathercasts for radio and television. May be repeated to a maximum of four (4) semester hours.

Objectives:

Improve oral communication skills; prepare students for careers in broadcast meteorology. (Typically, half the class is considering a career in broadcasting and the other half is not.)

Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations should:

  1. register with and provide documentation to FSU's Student Disability Resource Center ("SDRC," 8 am - 5 pm, 08 Kellum Hall, Telephone (voice or TDD): 644-9566); and
  2. bring a letter to the instructor from the SDRC indicating you need academic accommodations. This should be done during the first week of class.

Grading:

S/U grading only. A "good faith" effort is required on all assignments. Performances at the C- level or better will earn a Satisfactory (S) grade. If a student performs below the C- level, does not do two or more assignments, or has two or more unexcused absences from class, the student will receive an Unsatisfactory (U) grade.

There are no absolute rights and wrongs for weathercasting. The instructor encourages students to try creative approaches. Such attempts may produce poor results initially. Therefore, the instructor will praise a creative approach that fails if it is clear that the student is trying to do his or her best. If the instructor judges that a student is not performing at the C- level or better or is not putting forth a "good faith" effort, the student will receive a warning. If sufficient improvement is not made following two warnings, an Unsatisfactory (U) grade will be assigned.

Text:

There is no text for this course, but printed material such as Television and Radio Announcing by S. W. Hyde will be on reserve in the Meteorology TV studio.

Assignments:

The list of weekly activities is attached. Students are expected to dress neatly for videotaping and to record their performances on their own videotapes. We will meet weekly to review tape recordings as a group. Have your tape cued to your most recent performance. Each week, each student will receive written and/or oral critiques from the instructor and classmates. From time to time, the instructor will give handouts to be read, there will be quizzes, and we will view videotapes of professional weathercasters.

After one semester in this course, a student is eligible to be considered to present weathercasts on FSU'’s cable channe 6. A student who is doing very well can even be considered for channel 6 during his or her first semester in MET3940. Students will also be encouraged to visit one or more public schools to make a presentation to primary or secondary school students.

Students are expected to uphold the Academic Honor Code published in The Florida State University Bulletin, in the Student Handbook, and at the FSU Web site (http://www.fsu.edu/~staffair/dean/honor.htm). The Academic Honor System at FSU is based on the premise that each student has the responsibility (1) to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity in the student's own work, (2) to refuse to tolerate violations of academic integrity in the University community, and (3) to foster a high sense of integrity and social responsibility on the part of the University community.