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, C.D. Rao,
Dean Becker, Lala Guerra, Larry Wigginton, Chris Cavalli, Jeff Bechtold, Jan
Smith, Karl Trappe, Sal Valastro, Tom Grimshaw, Kay Plavidal, Dale Biggs,
Laurie Duncan, Hadi Parhikhteh, Eric Ebner,
1.) Approval of Agenda
2.)
Approval of Minutes from:
3.)
Information items presented:
a.) CYP Update – The good news
is that the PHSC Lab is up and running at CYP.
However, the not so good news is that the air handling system is
creating too much noise. There is also
some difficulty for the instructors because a huge media cart is being used for
the media equipment and tons of cables are placed in the instructors walk area.
Other than that, there were still some problems with not having all the
equipment needed. There were discussions
and suggestions made. Since the noise
was the main problem, George Staff volunteered to measure the noise and report
back.
b.) Laura’s Sabbatical
Request. Laura Tacheny’s sabbatical
request was approved. She announced that
she would be going to the
c.) Tom’s ENGR 1301 Course
Report - Everyone watched a slide show presentation on Tom Bird’s ENGR 1301
Course Project. After the video, there
was discussion among the faculty about the report.
d.) NASA Flight Needs HELP –
Allen Underwood expressed that there was a need for chaperons and money for the
2 week trip to NASA in March. He asked
anyone that was interested in chaperoning to email him and anyone that would be
interested in donating to send the donations to him.
e.) Introduce a Girl to Science
Day – Saad Eways announced that UT would be holding an Engineering Day on
February 24, 2007 for girls from 1st grade through 8th
grade. He asked faculty to ask their
students if they would be interested in volunteering. The volunteering would consist in
demonstrations, show and tell and answering questions.
f.) Safety Training Requirements
– There were discussions on new safety trainings and changes that were being
made on some safety trainings. Everyone
was also reminded that there were two Safety Training Requirements that were
required, which are both refresher training courses on the Haz-Com Training and
the Department Specific Safety Training.
g.) Bob’s Safety Update and
Travel - Bob Blodgett brought up safety updates to everyone in the
meeting. He mentioned to everyone that
there was an Injury Illness and Accident Prevention program that all employees
were required to undergo training. He
also told everyone that lab inspections were also going to be required. Another issue that is undergoing proposed
changes is the Field Activity Plan. The
budget for Field Activities has not increase in the last 5 years. During that period, gas prices have increase
224%, bus rental cost has increased 72%, van rental cost has increased 17% and
the number of courses with field activities has increased 17%. As we expand to SAC and CYP another 18%
increase will be added to sections that will have field activities. At the high school level insurance has also
been withdrawn from 12-15 passengers vans and it is likely that this will also
be applied at the college level.
Therefore, this will increase the number of vans that we will have to
use. It will also increase the number of
drivers we will have to hire and train.
Because of all of these changes a 14 page report has been put together
to be sent to the dean. This report is asking for two things. One is to propose a new administrative rule
which is specific to academic student travel.
In which we request the ability to allow us to train students that are
science majors to drive on field trips.
Secondly, a request for a 30% increase in our travel budget in FY08 and
in future years.
h.) Core Curriculum and the Man
– Both SACS and the Coordinating Board are going to be requiring documents
showing that the students are learning.
This means just about every course that is taught in every
department. Everyone in the meeting
shared various ways of showing how students are learning in their classes. Ron mentioned that this requirement would
start in Fall 2007.
i.) FY2006 Program Revenues vs.
Expenses - The FY2006 Program Revenues vs. Expenses Report shows the revenues
of each department.
4.) Discussion
Items:
a.) ENGR Insurance Fee – After a discussion about
the issue, everyone agreed that we should
include an insurance
fee for the Introduction to Engineering ENGR 1201 course.
b.) Title Change for Geol 1405 - It was decided that
GEOL 1405 title would be changed from
Environmental Geology to Environmental Geology with Lab.
5.) Action
Items:
6.) New Business:
Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee
February 2, 2007
Participants James Friedrichsen, Laura
Tacheny, John Cise, Allen Underwood, Saad Eways, Paul Nacozy, Elliot Richmond,
James Heath, Paul Williams, C.D. Rao,
Dean Becker, Lala Guerra, Larry Wigginton, Chris Cavalli, Jeff Bechtold, Karl
Trappe, Sal Valastro, Dale Biggs, Hadi Parhikhteh, Eric Ebner,
1401 Lab Committee Information
The 1401 Lab Committee will meet
March 2, 2007 at NRG after our department meeting. Committee members are Paul Williams, Jeff
Bechtold, Chris Cavalli, John Cise, Allen Underwood and Eric Ebner.
Upcoming Physics Meetings and
Workshops
Paul handed out a list of 6
upcoming Physics meetings and workshops.
The following meetings and workshops are:
Spring Meeting of Texas Section
of AAPT joint with Texas section of APS, Adaptable Curriculums for Introductory
Physics (ACIP) Workshop, Breaking Barriers in Communication: Technology-Enabled Active Learning in STEM
Disciplines, Activity Based Physics Faculty Institute, Summer Meeting of AAPT
and TCCTA meeting
Engineering Physics Textbook
Selection Process
James informed everyone in the
meeting, that a decision had to be made by the end of the spring semester on
which Engineering Physics textbook should be adopted for the fall 2007
semester.
Plagiarism in Engineering
Physics
Laura Tacheny showed concern that
there was plagiarism going on in her Engineering Physics classes. It was decided that we would continue to
discuss this issue at our March meeting.
EPII Pre-Requisites
Everyone in the meeting shared
their suggestions and concerns on EPII prerequisites. It was decided that we would continue to
discuss this issue at our March meeting.
Physics Course Standards
Laura led a discussion on introducing
minimum standards in our courses. It was decided that we would continue to
discuss this issue at our March meeting.
Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee
February 2, 2007
Participants Ron Johns, George Staff, Bob
Blodgett, Jan Smith, Sal Valastro, Tom Grimshaw, Kay Plavidal, Laurie Duncan
GEOL 1403 lab manual
There was some additional
discussion about developing a new lab manual for GEOL 1403. Laurie will coordinate and oversee the
effort, and instructors should send her their exercises and suggestions. She would be the lead author.
The members of the evaluation
committee for GEOL/ESTE agreed that they should meet on Feb. 23 at RVS to do
the evaluations.