Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force
Meeting
Time:
Participants: James Friedrichsen, Lala
Guerra, Sal Valastro, Ron Johns, Chris Cavalli, Dean Becker, Paul Nacozy, Laura Tacheny, Saad Eway, John Cise, Paul Williams, C.D. Rao, Bob
Blodgett, Hadi Parhikhteh, Cindy Carr, Dale Biggs, Jeff Bechtold, David
Cuddeback, Michael McGraw, Karl Trappe, Allen Underwood, Dennis Dunn, Larry
Minter, Catherine Duncan
1.)
Approval of Agenda
2.)
Approval of Minutes from:
3.)
Information items presented:
a.) Pathway Project is a
technology project for the TEKS preservice teachers. We are looking for nominees. The college will fund the cost of the
attendance for the training with innovation grant money. We need to identify a member of Math and
Science that is willing to participate in the project. Paul Williams nominated himself. The First Session is a full day hands on
training that will be October 22, 2005 at Leaks Conference Information
Technology in
b.) Faculty Advising James Friedrichsen
informed Fulltime Faculty that they would soon be advising students instead of
counselors. This would be mandatory for
Fulltime faculty and optional for adjunct faculty. David Fonken wanted nominees from the
Math/Science Division that would be interested in serving on a committee that
is suppose to steer how this process going to be defined and layed out. Saad volunteered to be in the committee.
c.) No more P.D. Compensation
for Adjuncts Adjuncts will no longer get compensation for Professional
Development Hours as agreed by the AFA and the administration.
d.) Cypress Creek Expansion
update Chis Cavalli mentioned that half of the parking lot was cut off
because of the construction and machinery.
Students for now are parking at
e.) Dept. Website update Paul
Williams announced that he had been updating the department website. So far he has updated the department meetings
and updated some of the minutes. As of
now he has 1 year worth of minutes to update.
Once he completes that task, he will start with the syllabi and the course
guidelines and then will restructure the main page.
f.) Awards and Recognition
Paul Williams was recognized for 15 years of service and 1 year of service He
was also awarded the Phi Theta Kappa teachers excellence award. Jeff Bechtold was recognized for 10 years of
service.
4.)
Discussion Items:
a.) PHYS 1653 We are in the
process of applying for a joint application with the Lower Division Academic Course
Guide Manual in Texas Common Course Code Numbering System to have a new algebra
base physics course included that is a one semester version of General Physics
I & II, so that we may teach PHYS 1653.
More than likely they will also include a lecture/lab version with some
sort of standard PHYS number. We have
the supporting documents from Texas Tech that our PHYS 1653 will transfer to them
as a generic elective credit. It will
also transfer to
b.) Registration Activity David
Fonken mentioned that we might want to monitor registration activity and take
snap shots. Some instructors expressed
their concerns about how many students are being dropped for nonpayment. Some suggestions were - extending the kill session, giving students more time
to pay for classes. James Heath
suggested that next semester instructors should do a day by day tracking of who
is enrolled in Physics on a spreadsheet.
Ron Johns mentioned that he was working on the summer schedule and if
any one had ideas to let him know. James Heath also suggested Assistant Deans
should get together and compose a letter to the Administration dealing with
this problem.
c.)
Phase II Reorg.
James Friedrichsen mention that no one
in Math and Science was on the Phase II Reorganization committee. James explained to faculty what the duties of
the Phase II Reorganization committee would be namely that is in charge of going
in and taking a look at all the job descriptions and the chain of command of between
the Deans, Department Chairs and Assistant Deans and where they need to make
changes in the level of authority of decision making. The main concern was that a person with
safety and lab experience should be involved.
Suggestions were made on who should serve on the committee.
d.) Equivalent
Math requirement in Physics We need to determine what the equivalent is going
to be for a high school student who has a C or better in College Algebra. We will have to come up with some standard
way to determine when a high school student can enroll in our General Physics I
course.
e.) Prerequisites for Astronomy/Geology - At the present there are no official math
prerequisites only skill codes for Astronomy courses but it was decided to go
and change them back to intermediate algebra.
Geology would decide if the skill codes were sufficient for their math
prerequisites.
5.) Action
Items:
a.) Committee
Assignments for 2005 2006 - Evaluation
Committee for Physics Astronomy are:
John Cise (chair), Chris Cavalli, James Heath, Paul Nacozy and John
Underwood. Evaluation Committee for Environmental
Science and Geology are: Bob
Blodgett, Sal Valastro, George Staff and Ron Johns. Adjunct
Hiring for Physics and Astronomy Committee are:
Jeff Bechtold (chair), Laura Tacheny, Saad Eways, Dean Becker and
Chris Cavalli. Adjunct Hiring for Environmental Science and Geology Committee are: Jan Smith (chair), Sal Valastro and George
Staff. For the Long Term and Master Planning Committee are: Ron Johns (Chair), John Underwood, Paul
Williams, Cindy Carr, Chris Cavalli and Larry Wigginton.
b.) Placement
Exams
● AP
Physics Exam Ron suggested that the Physics department should consider accepting
AP Physics Exam credit at least for next year.
● Physical
Science CLEP Exam There shouldnt be a CLEP Exam for Physical Science because
we do not offer the class anymore and needs to be removed from the website and
the course catalog under natural sciences.
c.) Dept Schedule
Change Policy - Add/Drop dates usually
go from Monday thru Wednesday and after adds and drops, students need to get
approval from Assistant Deans or Department Chair. We as a department need to go in and decide
how we want to handle the approval process.
Everyone gave their suggestions and concerns. Some of the suggestions were to approve
general schedule changes until Sunday instead of Wednesday, and to have level
changes go on for two weeks. Instructors
should also be informed of level changes.
6.)
New Business:
a.) Purchase of flat screens David Cuddeback pointed out that the
lab rooms were now supplied with flat screens.
He asked if faculty wanted flats screen monitors but stated that the
money would have to come out of our budget.
It was decided that it was not a
good idea to purchase flat screen monitors for faculty but should be used for
equipment that is needed like laptops and projectors for lab rooms.
Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee
Participants James
Friedrichsen, Lala Guerra, Chris
Cavalli, Dean Becker, Paul Nacozy, Laura
Tacheny, Saad Eway, John Cise, Paul Williams, C.D. Rao, Hadi Parhikhteh, Dale
Biggs, Jeff Bechtold, Michael McGraw, Karl Trappe
It was decided that that we would
look at what U.T. does in terms of accepting A.P. credit, before we decided
what to do about how we would handle A.P. credit.
The C or better rule as applied to
all physics courses except conceptual physics seems to have had only a minor impact
on the students at this time. It was
decided that we should work to come up with a standard wording and that this
should be send out via email.
Various methods were discussed about
what has been learned as we have been rigorously checking prerequisites. It was suggested that those without the
necessary prerequisites could be flagged on the rolls so that they would be
brought to the attention of the instructor, it was also suggested that those
without the necessary prerequisites could be made to sign a waiver.
Karl Trappe then talked about the U.T. homework system for us to consider.
Minutes of GEOL/ESTE Subcommittee
Participants: Sal
Valastro, Ron Johns, Bob Blodgett, Cindy Carr, Dennis Dunn, Larry Minter,
Catherine Duncan, Maurine Poe, Jan Smith
There
was a short discussion and agreement that we should combine the GEOL 1105
course with one section of GEOL 1305 and make a new GEOL 1405 course. The proposed title was Applied Environmental
Geology. Students would not be allowed
to also take GEOL 1305.
It
was also decided to leave the prerequisites for the geology courses as they
are.
Ron
mentioned that the Tech Committee had approved $2500 for a slide scanner and
digitizer. The long-range planning
committee will carry this forward.