A&O SCI 103

Physical Oceanography

Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: Mathematics 3B or 31B. Introductory course for physical sciences, life sciences, or engineering majors interested in environmental issues. Observations of temperature, salinity, density, and currents. Methods. Wind-driven and geostrophic currents. California Current and Gulf Stream. Internal waves. Surface waves and tides. Air/sea interactions. Coastal upwelling. Biological/physical interactions. El niño. Role of ocean in climate and global change. Santa Monica Bay field trip. Letter grading.

Units: 4.0
1 of 1
AD
Overall Rating N/A
Easiness N/A/ 5
Clarity N/A/ 5
Workload N/A/ 5
Helpfulness N/A/ 5
Overall Rating N/A
Easiness N/A/ 5
Clarity N/A/ 5
Workload N/A/ 5
Helpfulness N/A/ 5
Overall Rating N/A
Easiness N/A/ 5
Clarity N/A/ 5
Workload N/A/ 5
Helpfulness N/A/ 5
Overall Rating 4.1
Easiness 2.9/ 5
Clarity 4.0/ 5
Workload 2.4/ 5
Helpfulness 4.1/ 5
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - Overall, really cool subject and a good professor! I feel that I learned a ton of practical information about climate and the physical world. We talked about El Nino as it was happening and the Santa Monica Bay was used a lot as an example. I personally love learning about the earth and hope to take more of these kinds of classes. One qualm I had was the clicker quizzes at the beginning of class. They often felt a little slow and since we often didn't finish all the slides that were posted on CCLE, I wished we could have used the time more efficiently. Otherwise, the use of the clicker was actually really helpful in the long run. We covered a lot of topics that were a little more technical, but these were balanced with more qualitative information, looking at cases in different parts of the world. I would have liked to see a more quantitative analysis of these areas, but I think much of the class enjoyed these sections. As an engineering major, I found the math in this class to be extremely manageable, although I noticed that much of the class had trouble with the calculus (derivatives) and physics (forces, waves, and super-simplified fluid mechanics ideas) used. I think the professor should have either altered the class the class to be more accommodating of that relatively large group--in which case I likely would have wanted a more technical class--or perhaps just described the course differently. I found myself wishing it was more technical and there was more math, but maybe that's a different class. However, there were a few parts that were explained in a slightly confusing way, which was probably not helpful. Potential vorticity stumped a lot of people. My TA, Daniel, was great at explaining these sections.
AD
1 of 1