Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force

May 6, 2005

 

Meeting Place:              RVS

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.