Louisa Bradtmiller

Unit 3: Simple Climate Models part of Modeling Earth Systems
Students will explore Earth's radiation budget using several versions of a simple climate model often referred to as a "layer model." Earth receives energy from the sun, some of which is reflected ...

Summative Assessment: Creating a model part of Modeling Earth Systems
The summative assessment for this course requires students to construct, utilize, and critique a numerical model of a climate-related Earth system of their choosing. The project involves four pieces: creating a ...

Review exercise for introductory Environmental Science course part of Complex Systems:Teaching Activities
This activity could be used toward the end of an Introduction to Environmental Science course (or something similar) as a way to help students review for the exam, and also to make sure they are able to see the ...

Modeling Earth Systems part of Modeling Earth Systems
In this course, we develop the qualitative and quantitative tools for constructing, experimenting with, and interpreting dynamic models of different components of the Earth system. The integrated set of ten modules ...

Louisa Bradtmiller: Modeling Earth Systems at Macalester College part of Modeling Earth Systems
Building skills and confidence through modeling This course attempts to teach students to think like a modeler in a single semester, without any pre-requisites in math or computer science. By using a visually-based software package and introducing a few new ideas and skills each week, students acquire the tools they need to test hypotheses with their own independently-constructed models by the end of the course. The course was unique for me because there was almost no lecturing; just a few minutes at the start of each week's 3-hour block. The fact that the students spent almost all of in-class time each week working on translating the readings into working models meant that they got to try, fail, ask questions, talk with each other, and try again, all with the instructor present.

The Earth's Climate System part of Complex Systems:Courses
This course will be taught once per year. It provides an introduction to the climate system through lectures, labs, discussions and activities. It uses lecture and inquiry based activities to help students gain ...

Two approaches to introductory courses in complex systems part of Complex Systems:Workshop 2010:Participant Essays
Louisa Bradtmiller, Macalester College I teach two introductory-level courses about complex systems: Introduction to Environmental Science, and The Earth's Climate System. As their titles suggest, one is ...