Global Warming: The Science and Modeling of Climate Change is a free online adaptation of a college-level class for non-science majors at the University of Chicago (textbook, video lectures). The class includes 33 short exercises for playing with on-line models, 5 “number-cruncher” problems where you create simple models from scratch in a spreadsheet or programming language, and 8 “explainer” assignments where you explain some concept as you would to a smart 11-year old child (short, simple, clear), and exchange these with other students in the class for feedback. The discussion forums are very lively, as thousands of people from around the world make their way through the video lectures and exercises, lots to chat about. This is our third run of the class, so we’re getting the kinks out. We hope you find it useful. September 29 – December 31 2014.
Professor Archer,
Several years ago I “took” your online class Understanding the Forecast. Having completed my math and physics degrees about a decade prior to that much of the material was a review, but I still found your lectures illuminating on the material I already had studied at my university. Since that time I have always recommended your class to people who really want to a background education in the science of climate (change).
I simply wanted to thank you for continuing to improve the online courses. I think it is a wonderful thing you are doing, and I can only hope many more will avail themselves of the time and resources you put into this.
Enrolled. :-)
As I’m fairly unfamiliar with how Coursera works, can you get the ‘verified certificate’ thing after you’ve already completed the course, if you decide you want/need that?
[Response: I doubt it, because they have some kind of verification procedure when you take a test for the “signature track”, like a typing timing test and a face recognition against your id you hold up. David. ]
What is new?
Global warming is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of Earth’s climate system. Since 1971, 90% of the increased energy has been stored in the oceans, mostly in the 0 to 700m region.