Award-winning poster and upcoming AMS presentations

Jenny Shepard, a senior meteorology student doing a directed study with me this semester won an award for her poster at the Earth and Atmospheric Science fall research poster conference!  She'll be presenting this at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in August.  She'll be at the student conference Sunday, Exhibit Hall 5, 6:15-8:15.  She's S26.

Former student Shauna is leading our other poster, which will be similar, but more precipitation-focused.  This one is Tuesday in Exhibit hall 3, 3:45-5:30 #559.

Finally, I'm giving a talk on a programming project I did in my dynamics course in an education session focused on dynamics teaching.  This is Wednesday at 2:30 in Ballroom C.  The session goes from 1:30-3:45 if the topic interests you. 

Student meteorology club presents the solar eclipse

The meteorology program ordered 1,000 eclipse glasses and gave them out throughout the summer and on the day of the eclipse.  I made sure all EAS classes that morning had a supply of glasses.  I also partnered with Student Activities (Thanks Diana Ibarra!) since we were both planning eclipse parties, why not join forces?  Our Student Chapter of the American Meteorological Society hosted a booth, the physics department hosted a booth, and student activities had their booths for handing out their 5,000 sets of MSU Denver eclipse glasses!  Wow!  I was able to print up a bunch of posters and tried to get some poor-man's viewers set up at our booth.  Physics saved the day with some legit eclipse viewers!  Here are some of my favorite photos from the day.

Stephanie, Kiska, Megan, Erin, and Josh prepared to educate the masses

It was a unique experience sharing glasses and sharing the experience with thousands of students on campus while many of my friends headed to Wyoming to experience totality.  A student put it best, "I've never felt such a positive energy on this campus as I did during the eclipse!"  I think it was worth staying behind to educate and spread the love of science, but I might have to head towards totality for the next one in 2024 in the eastern U.S.!

Eclipse party!  

The physics department had a great display of the current moon shadow

Any small hole could project the crescent shape

From my spot on the grass where I had to sit to get away from the swarms of people wanting to borrow glasses.  Hey, a gal's got to take it all in!

Shadows from leaves on the trees

Josh remembering to take it in himself while passing around shared glasses after we ran out

Eclipse party at the Tivoli

So many people, so much awesome energy!

The sun and moon-themed stuffed animals were enjoyed by many

Bri talking to the little ones about what an eclipse is after the main event

Students kept a record of temperature during the eclipse as it dropped.  Dr. Wagner had his GLOBE instruments set up in the shade nearby to record 5-minute temperatures as well.  Yay science!

Total Solar Eclipse 2017 is the First Day of Class

Monday, August 21^st, 11:47am—First day of classes!

100% totality of the moon going in front of the sun is only visible north and east of here, but here in Denver we can see 93% totality!  You will want to be outside from 11:40-11:50am at the very least.  The next total solar eclipse visible from Colorado isn’t until 2045.  Don’t miss this one!  Never look directly at the sun without eclipse glasses!  Sunglasses are not strong enough.

 

Eclipse timeline

Eclipse begins 10:23am

93% Totality in Denver:  11:47am—lasts about 2 minutes

Eclipse ends 1:14am

Where:  Look for the SCAMS/EAS booth at Welcome Week the Tivoli Quad where people will be joining together to watch the eclipse from 10:00-2:00.  Gather on the Tivoli lawn from 11:40-11:50 for best viewing.

Get your eclipse glasses in Science 2028, the EAS office.  Glasses have been provided by the Earth and Atmospheric Science Department's Meteorology Program.  If you appreciate the glasses, take a selfie in your eclipse glasses or with a group of friends enjoying the eclipse and share on social media so I can see how many of you used them: 

Twitter: @MSUDenverEAS, #eclipse2017, #MSUDenverEclipse

Instagram: #eclipse2017, #MSUDenverEclipse

Enjoy safely!

Check out this awesome video, "Why a total solar eclipse is such a big deal"

This article lets you punch in your zip code to see what time and how much totality you will see:

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/7/25/16019892/solar-eclipse-2017-interactive-map

Advising Flow Chart and Meteorology Program Recruiting Movie

I created this flowchart to emphasize how important it is for meteorology majors to get started on their math and physics courses very early on.  Grab your own copy from the bulletin board outside of SI 2003.  

One day I was on a roll making videos for my online course and took a break to throw this meteorology program recruiting video together.  https://youtu.be/T2jOViIoe4Y  Enjoy!

Denver March for Science

On Earth Day a global March for Science was organized and our main local march in Colorado was just down the street from our campus in Denver, so we met around 9:00 for coffee and bagels, then marched from the Science building to Civic Center Park.  We had professors, our EAS advisor Karen, students, alumni, and friends joining us in the march.  The march was one of the most positive and uplifting events I've ever attended.  Yes, us scientists are commonly introverted and not huge fans of crowds so we weren't your usual activist chanters.  Yes it was raining and in some cases snowing that morning.  Yes, we all are busy people and have things to do like piles of grading and revisions waiting for us back home, but thousands of science allies still came out to join the march.  It was truly impressive.  The police estimate that 13,000-15,000 marched with a total of about 20,000 attending at some point during the day.  We arrived at the park around 9:55 and enjoyed many of the signs before the march started off to our right.  We hopped in the long line and marched around downtown Denver in the wide streets that were graciously barricaded off for our safety.  Thanks for the Denver police and the volunteers for keeping us safe!

This little guy's family all had made Lorax shirts and a little truffula tree that matched mine.  He was a great sport and let me take his picture in front of the capitol, my favorite picture.

I had made a truffula tree from "The Lorax" that read, "I speak for the trees."  It was a big hit and I probably smiled for 50 photos and had a bunch of kids photographed with it as well.  I ran into many other Lorax fans throughout the morning as well.  The speakers began at some point, including Mike Nelson and our governor, but I was too busy handing out stickers to every future-meteorologist I could find.  We went through 200 stickers.  I'd like to think that my truffula tree was my in to get people to smile at me.

Our advertising stickers

If you are sad you missed out, you can join next Saturday April 29th for the climate march.

Me!  Hard to believe it was in the low 40s and raining just a few hours earlier.

Here are my photos from the day, and near the end a few photos that were posted on the March for Science Denver page that aren't mine.

We started at the Science building and marched to Civic Center Park.  The sun came out around 9:30 just in time!

Karen, Karmen, Dr. Wagner, and Charlie right before we started marching

I found my first fellow Lorax lover!  

Loved this sign!

I'm on the left, but I loved this gal's little Lorax.  Great minds! 

A common meme, but as a meteorologist I still laugh every time.

T-rex showed up.  Dinosaurs for climate science!

Dr. Wagner and I found alumni Dalton and Noah, both of whom are leaving for graduate school in the fall.  So proud!

Dr. Wagner and student in the WASSUP club, Jamie.

Dr. Wagner uses the pump to create a cloud with Erin, who was volunteering at the Denver Boulder American Meteorological Society booth.  Erin is president of our school chapter. 

I don't think I took this picture, but loved this lady's sign.  Thanks for volunteering!

I found this picture of me in someone else's feed.  Thanks!

This was the crowd right before the march started.

Marching in downtown Denver for science.

Gandalf knows what's up.

More Lorax lovers!  Great job, guys!

Making a cloud at the DBAMS booth.

The littlest Lorax had lost half a mustache and an eye during the day but was still going strong 4 hours in!

Dr. Bob Hancock's wife's band played near the end of the march in the band shell.  He's the bio professor down the hall from us.

Cloud in a bottle.  

Make your own tornado.

The following are not my photos, but were posted on the Facebook page for the march.  They give a great sense of the crowd that my photos failed to give.

This isn't my photo.  Sorry I didn't keep track of where I got it either.

This isn't my photo.  Sorry I didn't keep track of where I got it either.

This isn't my photo, photo by Jamie Hurt.

This isn't my photo, and I can't remember where I got it.  Sorry!

Summer Online Course

Join me in my online MTR 1600 Global Climate Change course this summer.  It fulfills the global diversity requirement as well as 3 credits of the science requirement for general studies.  (Note for MTR majors-- this can't count for your global diversity, sorry!)  It's an 8-week course that starts June 5, so we're done by July 29th.  The course is set up as a series of videos with weekly quizzes, four country assignments, and a midterm and final.  Here's a view of the schedule I used last summer, which I set up so students can always work one week ahead in case of a planned summer vacation.  This means you could finish the course in seven weeks.  I imagine this summer's schedule will look very similar, I just haven't created it yet.

Description:  This course presents the science behind global climate change from an Earth systems and atmospheric science perspective. These concepts then provide the basis to explore the effect of global warming on regions throughout the world. This leads to the analysis of the observed and predicted impacts of climate change on these regions; the effect of these changes on each region's society, culture, and economy; and the efforts of these regions to mitigate or adapt to climate change. The interdependence of all nations will be discussed in regards to fossil fuel-rich regions, regions responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, and regions most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.  3 credits. (General Studies:  Natural and Physical Science, Global Diversity requirements)

The CRNs are 42458, 42253, or 42105.  If you notice they are all full, shoot me an email so I can increase enrollments to make room for you.  (kschuene@msudenver.edu)