When I was in school meteorology was part of the Physical Geograpy
syllabus (sorry can't remember whether it was O or A level or both).

Is it taught today?

--
..ElaineJ. Briallen Traditional Crafts at http://www.briallen.co.uk
..Virtual. Corn Dollies, Handmade Felt, Coasters, Handmade Soap
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Elaine Jones wrote:
When I was in school meteorology was part of the Physical Geograpy
syllabus (sorry can't remember whether it was O or A level or both).

Is it taught today?

It was vaguely taught in science when I was doing GCSEs 15-or-so years
ago. And bits of it were taught in geography prior to GCSEs. It
certainly wasn't coherent!

Jonathan

On Jun 18, 6:38*am, Jonathan Stott wrote:
Elaine Jones wrote:
When I was in school meteorology was part of the Physical Geograpy
syllabus (sorry can't remember whether it was O or A level or both).

Is it taught today?

It was vaguely taught in science when I was doing GCSEs 15-or-so years
ago. And bits of it were taught in geography prior to GCSEs. It
certainly wasn't coherent!

You must have been on the BBC sillybus.

On Jun 18, 2:44*am, Elaine Jones wrote:
When I was in school meteorology was part of the Physical Geograpy
syllabus (sorry can't remember whether it was O or A level or both).

Is it taught today?

--
.ElaineJ. *Briallen Traditional Crafts athttp://www.briallen.co.uk
.Virtual. *Corn Dollies, Handmade Felt, Coasters, Handmade Soap
StrongArm *Jones' Pages athttp://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/ejones
.RISC PC. *Corwen, North Wales; Steam Traction;CMMGB&Yukon Volunteers. *

It is taught Elaine. There is a meteorology element at KS3 Geography
(not sure about science), KS4 Geography and Science and in Geography
"A" levels from the different syllabuses (not sure about science
again). At KS2 (primary) the pupils can do weather recording and some
weather studies. It's a very basic version at KS3 - "Weather" really;
beaufort scale and stuff -and similarly at KS4 (GCSE). Here, it is
mainly the effects of weather (disasters and the human response,
hurricanes, etc) with very little meaty meteorology. You'd probably
see a synoptic chart of a depression and an anticyclone, with a
weather station plotted doing the GCSE course, but the interpretation
you'd be asked for would be very simple. At AS and A2 ("A" level), the
meteorology is modular (schools can opt not to do it and many don't,
because it is often percieved as being the most difficult part of the
course) and I'm not sure if any of the exam boards have a straight
meteorology module anyway. Again, it is more the human response to
weather conditions, with a modicum of meteorology. The synoptic paper
(ironic name, really) will have some meteorology in there, but it will
be mainly simple interpretation of charts and again, mainly, the human
response.

I have had little to do with teaching students for the last 7 years,
so there may be someone out there that is more up-to-date than I am.
However I do remember the halcyon days of SEG Meteorology "O" level. I
introduced that at a number of schools in Yorkshire and we had great
success. I remember re-visiting the Met Dept at my Alma Mater in
Reading and finding out that one of my students had gained top prize
in the coursework study for that year! In that excellent and sadly
missed (for some of us) course, pupils had to actually construct
weather maps from synoptic information, recognise the feature they had
drawn and predict the weather 12 hours ahead from that chart. There
are very few 15/16 year olds in the UK today that could do that and no
exam board asks for anything like that level of understanding until
you reach University.

On a personal note, the demise of meteorology in the curriculum is a
crying shame. Students found it challenging, but almost all found it
extremely interesting and some of my students went on to study
meteorology at University as a result of doing that GCSE (No "A" level
in the subject in my time, not any other, I believe).

Hope that helps! Paul

On 18 June, 08:50, Dawlish wrote:

On a personal note, the demise of meteorology in the curriculum is a
crying shame. Students found it challenging, but almost all found it
extremely interesting and some of my students went on to study
meteorology at University as a result of doing that GCSE (No "A" level
in the subject in my time, not any other, I believe).

The meteorology O-level may have died (I tried to do it in 1991 and
told it had been pulled - although had meteorology units in both GCSE
and A-level) but thankfully the demise at school level hasn't affected
the interest at University level: in my 7 years at Reading in the
1990s the graduate in-take increased. These days we have a lot to
thank the internet for in terms of increasing awareness and interest
in meteorology.

Richard

In article
,
Richard Dixon writes:
The meteorology O-level may have died (I tried to do it in 1991 and
told it had been pulled - although had meteorology units in both GCSE
and A-level) but thankfully the demise at school level hasn't affected
the interest at University level: in my 7 years at Reading in the
1990s the graduate in-take increased. These days we have a lot to
thank the internet for in terms of increasing awareness and interest
in meteorology.

Am I right in my impression that at university level meteorology is now
taught as a branch of physics rather than as a branch of geography? My
reason for thinking that is that Met Office presenters occasionally seem
to show a lack of knowledge of basic geography.
--
John Hall "Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always
pays off now." Anon

On 18 June, 10:31, John Hall wrote:

Am I right in my impression that at university level meteorology is now
taught as a branch of physics rather than as a branch of geography? My
reason for thinking that is that Met Office presenters occasionally seem
to show a lack of knowledge of basic geography.

Meteorology at Reading (and it could easily have changed now) when I
did in '93 had compulsory core modules of Meteorology, Physics and
Maths in the first year. In my (straight) Meteorology degree you could
then specialise more in Meteorology in the 2nd year, with one or two
options required in Physics/Maths/Stats, becoming pure Meteorology
come the third year. There are also combined maths/met and physics/met
degrees. Perhaps a more recent and/or current graduate can confirm/
deny ! Elsewhere, I believe Birmingham does a Met M.Sc and Edinburgh
does Physics and Met?

Richard

In article
,
Richard Dixon writes:
On 18 June, 10:31, John Hall wrote:

Am I right in my impression that at university level meteorology is now
taught as a branch of physics rather than as a branch of geography? My
reason for thinking that is that Met Office presenters occasionally seem
to show a lack of knowledge of basic geography.

Meteorology at Reading (and it could easily have changed now) when I
did in '93 had compulsory core modules of Meteorology, Physics and
Maths in the first year. In my (straight) Meteorology degree you could
then specialise more in Meteorology in the 2nd year, with one or two
options required in Physics/Maths/Stats, becoming pure Meteorology
come the third year. There are also combined maths/met and physics/met
degrees. Perhaps a more recent and/or current graduate can confirm/
deny ! Elsewhere, I believe Birmingham does a Met M.Sc and Edinburgh
does Physics and Met?

Thsnks. That seems to be a "yes".
--
John Hall "Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always
pays off now." Anon

On 18 June, 10:31, John Hall wrote:
In article
,
*Richard Dixon writes:

The meteorology O-level may have died (I tried to do it in 1991 and
told it had been pulled - although had meteorology units in both GCSE
and A-level) but thankfully the demise at school level hasn't affected
the interest at University level: in my 7 years at Reading in the
1990s the graduate in-take increased. These days we have a lot to
thank the internet for in terms of increasing awareness and interest
in meteorology.

Am I right in my impression that at university level meteorology is now
taught as a branch of physics rather than as a branch of geography? My
reason for thinking that is that Met Office presenters occasionally seem
to show a lack of knowledge of basic geography.
--
John Hall * * * *"Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always
* * * * * * * * * pays off now." *Anon

Back in the early 70's I studied Meteorology as part of my Geography
BSc. Strangely, when I applied for a job at the MetO, my BSc wasn't
science as they didn't consider Geography a science (even though I
specialised in meteorology & geomorphology). They were only interested
people with pure science degrees.

Still, probably all for the best, big organisations & me don't mix
well.

Graham
Penzance (sunny start, but increasing cloud now - mainly stratus - bit
of sc)

Graham Easterling wrote:

Back in the early 70's I studied Meteorology as part of my Geography
BSc. Strangely, when I applied for a job at the MetO, my BSc wasn't
science as they didn't consider Geography a science (even though I
specialised in meteorology & geomorphology). They were only interested
people with pure science degrees.

When I had to choose between Arts and Science for the sixth form in 1960,
the science subjects were Pure Maths, Applied Maths, Physics, Chemistry,
Botany, Zoology. The rest, as I recall, including Geography, were Arts
subjects. We had to choose four to take at A-level and I went on the science
side.

A couple of years later, I chose to get a job instead of going to university
as money was a bit short. I'd no idea of what I was going to do but had
always been interested in the weather. I was surprised when the headmaster
said I didn't need geography and that science subjects were required. He
also said that there weren't many jobs worse paid than teaching but, in the
Met Office, I'd found one. Later, in the forecasting courses, I realised why
Science and not Geography was so important.

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks., UK. E-mail: newsman not newsboy
"I wear the cheese. It does not wear me."