Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force
May 6, 2005
Meeting Time: 9:30 am
Participants: Ron
Johns, Lala Guerra, Sal Valastro, James Friedrichsen, Chris Cavalli, James
Heath, Dean Becker, Paul Nacozy, Laura
Tacheny, Saad Eway, Jan Smith, John Cise, Paul Williams, C.D. Rao, Leslie
Davis, Bob Blodgett, George Staff,
Mostafa Pirnia, Hadi Parhikhteh, Elliot Richmond, Maurine Poe, Martin Prahovic,
Cindy Carr, Dale Biggs, Jeff Bechtold
1.) Approval of Agenda
2.) Approval of Minutes
from:. April 1, 2005
3.) Information items
presented:
a.)
Master
Plan/Budget – The end of the budget
year is approaching, so buy supplies before it is too late. Ron is hopeful that some tech Plan items
might be approved: $14,570 for capital
equipment replacement, and money for computer projectors. The college will try to install computer
projectors in a number of classrooms next year.
b.)
UT Distance
Learning – UT is looking for
distance-learning instructors.
c.)
Astronomy and
the Coordinating Board – Our committee compiled a report of how
colleges teach PHYS 1311 and PHYS 1312.
some teach PHYS 1311 as Stellar Astronomy and 1312 as Solar System
Astronomy, and some do it the other
way. According to Rex Peebles, the
Coordinating Board clarified this issue and resolved to do it the way ACC does.
d.)
PHYS 1411 – The new course will be included in the Core Curriculum
this fall.
e.)
Handbook – Ron told everyone in the meeting that he was going
to try to revise the Physical Sciences Handbook and have it available for the
summer session.
f.)
ACC Mineral
Collection – Bob Blodgett informed
everyone in the meeting that there are now 40 mineral specimens donated by
Allen Standen on display at NRG.
Appreciation was given to the Chemistry Department for their help for
providing the shelves.
g.)
NASA Trip – Laura, Paul Williams, Saad and 10 students from ACC
went to NASA in Houston in mid-April to compete with other students from other
colleges to build a rover and do a presentation. Laura’s team won!
h.)
Innovation
Grant Award – Paul Williams, Paul
Nacozy, and Jeff Bechtold got the Innovation Grant and even $1000 more then
what was requested. This grant is for a
classroom set of interactive “clickers”
at NRG. We also will receive a laptop
and a projector on a cart to go around various classes for presentations. Paul also mentioned that RGC already had a
classroom set of clickers but were lacking the software. Paul also mentioned to everyone, that there
would be a brief training in August for the Professional Developmental Day and
a complete training in October to learn the system. He has found about 5 questions per lecture
works well.
i.)
Seven Habits
of Unsuccessful Students – James
Heath came up with a list of Seven Habits of Unsuccessful Students. 1.) Students who don’t use the book 2.)
Students who don’t come to class 3.) Students who don’t do work outside of
class 4.) Students who have a “customer mentality” 5.) Students who have a
mistakenly low opinion of ACC as an academic institution 6.) Students who have
unrealistic views of their own abilities
7.)
Students who require the instructor to motivate them. James told everyone in the meeting that if
they had any comments about the Seven
Habits to email him.
j.)
CYP Physics – Ron announced to everyone that we were in the
plans. We will have our own prep room at
CYP but will be sharing the lab room with Anatomy and Physiology classes.
4.) Discussion Items:
a.)
Summer
Staffing and Training – Because of
assorted random reasons, some of our adjunct faculty will not teach in the
summer. As a result, there are unstaffed
Geology and Physics classes. But Ron
assured everyone that Saad and Jan were busy lining up people for interviews so
we could hire new adjunct faculty and staff those sections.
b.)
Results of
Attendance Policies – James Heath
brought up some ideas that he was going to use for his student’s attendance
starting Fall, 2005. While his
attendance policies have shown some positive results, the “just-in-Time
Teaching” did not produce anything meaningful.
In the fall, Jim will try different policies in different sections:
1.) Axe-iomatic – 4 unexcused absences and one is dropped
2.) Grade-ful – attendance is part of grade
3.) Bonus – attendance gives bonus points
c.)
TSU Education
and Astronomy – Jim commented that
the Astronomy and geology programs at TSU don’t accept our Conceptual Physics
courses even though they are equivalent to TSU’s Conceptual Physics
courses. Chris Cavalli brought up that
some of her students were also worried that their Astronomy class would not
transfer to TSU.
5.) Action Items:
a.)
Regime change – As of May 9, 2005, James Friedrichsen will be
Department Chair for Physical Sciences, and formally received the screaming
monkey. Ron thanked everyone for the
privilege of serving the best group of faculty in the college.
Minutes
of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee
May 6, 2005
Participants James
Friedrichsen, Lala Guerra, Chris
Cavalli, James Heath, Dean Becker, Paul
Nacozy, Laura Tacheny, Saad Eway, John Cise, Paul Williams, C.D. Rao, Mostafa
Pirnia, Hadi Parhikhteh, Elliot Richmond, Martin Prahovic, Dale Biggs, Jeff
Bechtold
PHYS
1411/Core Curriculum – The Core Curriculum for PHYS 1411 has been
approved. It will appear in the fall
schedule.
Tutoring Lab - Martin Prahovic from the tutoring lab told everyone in the meeting that there would be a Tutoring Conference on May 9, 2005, and that tutors from the RGC tutoring lab were going to have a group discussion on dealing with students inadequately prepared in mathematics. He then asked if anyone had any suggestions, ideas or concerns. Some of the suggestions, ideas and concerns included:
• Having taken the prerequisite for a class two or
more years ago is probably too long to do well.
A grade of “C” in a prerequisite is probably not good enough to do well
•Physics for
the Utterly Confused book was recommended.
•Model good problem solving and show all the algebraic
steps correctly done to help students weak in math skills.
•When students take General Physics, they should have
already taken college algebra.
•Don’t get bogged down in math theory. Just give the
students the tools they need to do the physics.
• Tutors should ask students how their instructor
wants them to solve the problems
• There is a lack of tutors at the end of the semester
•Physics tutors should be identified more explicitly
on the Learning Lab schedules.
•Any math review sessions for physics students
conducted in the Learning Lab should have problems set in the context of
physics so as to be the most effective.
Minutes
of GEOL/ESTE Subcommittee
May 6, 2005
Participants Ron
Johns, Sal Valastro, Jan Smith, Leslie Davis,
Bob Blodgett, George Staff, Maurine Poe, Cindy Carr
After
much gnashing of teeth at the lack of alternatives, it was decided to adopt
Hamblin & Howard for GEOL 1403 for now.
It blows, but not as much as the other choices. We really need to write our own. Sabbatical anyone?
Staring
enviously at the structure models they have at RGC, it was decided to buy
similar ones for other campuses.
John
Kerzaya was volunteered to do a microscope tally college-wide for our
departments.
To
address concerns about instructors staying current, it was decided that any
individual who had been on the eligibility list but was removed without having
ever taught must reinterview. To get
back on the eligibility list, they must discuss some relatively current
topic. Normally, an individual would
only be removed from eligibility after going about two years without teaching.