Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force
Meeting
Time: 9:30am
Participants: James Friedrichsen, Ron Johns,
George Staff, Bob Blodgett, Laura Tacheny,
John Cise, Allen Underwood, Saad Eways, Paul Nacozy, Elliot Richmond,
James Heath, Paul Williams, Dennis Dunn, C.D. Rao, Dean Becker, Lala Guerra,
Larry Wigginton, Chris Cavalli, Jeff Bechtold, James Heath
1.) Approval of Agenda
2.)
Approval of Minutes from:
3.)
Information items presented:
a.) Faculty Handbook – Ron Johns
announced to everyone that the Physical Sciences Faculty Handbook was complete and
would be delivered sometime next week.
b.) Portfolio Reminder – James
Friedrichsen reminded everyone that portfolios need to be turned in.
c.) CYP Lab Tech. Hiring Process
Update - James Friedrichsen told everyone in the meeting that the Lab Tech.
position mistakes had been corrected and that the position would be posted
sometime this week.
d.) CYP Lab Tech Hiring
Committee – Ron Johns (Chair), James Friedrichsen, Jeff Bechtold, Cindy Carr,
Eric Ebner, Chris Cavalli and Paul Nacozy will be the Hiring Committee for the
CYP Lab Tech position.
e.) Field Trip Exception Request
– James Friedrichsen mentioned to everyone that he had turned in a Field Trip
Exception Request, to request that adjunct faculty would also be able to drive on
fieldtrips with their students.
f.) Core Curriculum Changes – All Core Curriculum
changes have been approved by the THECB.
g.) 1653 Update - PHY 1653 has been approved. It will now be PHYS 1318. Saad suggested that we form a departmental
committee to come up with a list of required topics to be used in this course. After a discussion, Saad Eways, Laura
Tacheny, John Cise, Paul Williams, James Friedrichsen and Dale Biggs
volunteered to be on the committee. (Dale Biggs was volunteered)
h.) Creationism and Intelligent
Design Seminar –James Heath reminded everyone about the Creationism and
Intelligent Design Seminar. The seminar
will take place on November 10, 2006 at RGC at 2:00pm in room 320.
i.)
Jeff Bechtold
announced that he had answered the “Steorn Challenge”
which was advertised in the "Economist" magazine for a jury of
scientists and engineers to evaluate an "over-unity" device. He then informed every that he was accepted
and will probably be traveling to
4.) Discussion
Items:
a.) Incomplete Policy – Changes
were made to the Incomplete Policy. It
was then decided that it would be looked over at our next meeting in December.
b.) Master Plan Items – Ron
Johns told everyone in the meeting that we had to come up with at least 10
items that would be priority on the Master Plan for our department. After a lengthy discussion it was agreed that
these would be our 10 items to push for.
(1) More Fieldtrip money (2) Students Response Systems (3)Budget for
Engineering (4)Lab tops (5)3-D plotter (6)Fulltime person at CYP (7)computer
projectors/wall maps (8)Budget increase for Physics (9)Budget increase for
Geology and (10)Lab chairs at NRG.
c.) Video Projectors - The
Technology committee is deciding which rooms will receive the next round of
video projectors, so we made up our priority list of rooms that we want to
propose having video projectors installed into next.
5.) Action
Items:
6.) New
Business:
Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee
November 3, 2006
Participants James Friedrichsen, Laura
Tacheny, Karl Trappe, John Cise, Allen Underwood, Saad Eways, Paul Nacozy, Jeff
Bectold, Elliot Richmond, James Heath, Paul Williams, C.D. Rao, Dean Becker,
Lala Guerra, Larry Wigginton, Chris Cavalli
It was decided that the decision
on the Engineering Physics Textbook would be delayed, but that we would
continue on as planned with the process.
Paul Williams passed out a list
of the 12 labs for General Physics I for instructors to look over and discuss
it on our next meeting in December.
Paul Williams announced to
everyone that he would hold a workshop on Video Data Acquisition and Analysis
with Logger Pro on Saturday, November 11, 2006 at 10:00am at NRG.
Alan Underwood felt that all the
work being put in Engineering was not being acknowledged. He suggested that something had to be done so
that the work that we do would be recognized.
Everyone brainstormed to come up with something to showcase the work
that we do for the engineering students.
However, no final decisions were reached at this time.
John Cise asked everyone if it would
be a good idea to have the Mechanical Universes DVD’s available for students
and faculty in the Library. Everyone
agreed that it would be good to make them available to the students.
Minutes of GEOL/ESTE Subcommittee
November 3, 2006
Participants Ron Johns, George Staff, Bob
Blodgett, Dennis Dunn
Coastal Field Trips
Since the demise of boat trips at
UT and A&M Galveston, we have not conducted field activities to the coast
for Oceanography (GEOL 1445). George
felt that we should be able to conduct such trips, both for Oceanography and as
part of the ESTE program. He knows of several
sites along the estuaries and beach that could be trenched, sampled, etc. Such trips could be done using rental buses,
leaving ACC early in the morning and returning late in the evening. Those present agreed that this should idea
should be pursued. George volunteered to
identify specific sites and develop relevant activities.
Textbook Review
George and other ESTE instructors
are unhappy with the current textbook for ENVR 1301. They will contact publishers and decide upon
a replacement text for next year.
ESTE Certificate Program
The ESTE program will convene an
advisory committee meeting next month to review the current ESTE curriculum and
recommend changes, if any.