Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force

March 2, 2007

 

Meeting Place:  CYP 2236

Meeting Time:               10:45 am

Participants:                  James Friedrichsen, Ron Johns, George Staff, Bob Blodgett,  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,  Sal Valastro, Dale Biggs, Eric Ebner, Michael McGraw, Clyde Springen, Cindy Carr,

 

1.) Approval of Agenda

2.) Approval of Minutes from:          

3.) Information items presented:

a.)    Introduction of Qurrat Thakur - Jeff Bechtold introduced our new CYP Physics Lab Tech. Qurrat Thakur to everyone at the meeting.  Everyone gave her a warm welcome.

b.)    Cypress Update – James told everyone at the meeting that the last he heard was that the Air ­­­­Handling System was supposed to have baffles installed and the volume of the air exchange was going to be turned down.  As of yet nothing has been done, the baffles have been ordered but are not in place yet.  Chris Cavalli stated that she had spoken with Bruce Davis regarding the volume of the air exchanger being turned down and Bruce mentioned to Chris that nothing could be done until he was told what kinds of chemicals were being stored in the lab.  As far as the cables on the floor and the media cart, there have not been any updates. There were discussions on how to improve the situation.  Jeff Bechtold said he had submitted a request to make changes in the lab room. 

c.)    Texas CC Promo Materials – Flyers were passed around in reference to “Why are Texas Community Colleges Essential”.  The flyers will be posted around the various campuses.

d.)    Larry Minter’s Courses - Larry Minter position at his other job has immediately changed and he will no longer be able to finish teaching his courses for us this semester.  So, we are now in search for instructors to take over his classes after Spring Break.  Sal Valastro volunteered to take over Larry’s GEOL 1403 class.          

e.)    C&P Update – At the last Curriculum and Program meeting we added the insurance fee for ENGR 1201 – Introduction to Engineering.  Students will be covered in case there is an accident related to any projects that are done in the course.  GEOL 1405 was also changed from Applied Environmental Geology to Environmental Geology with Lab.

f.)      Physics Hourly Budget Projection - James Friedrichsen advised everyone in the meeting to make sure that every cent of our hourly money was spent.  Because the hourly money is not spent, it would automatically be taken away from us and our budget would be less in the coming year.   

g.)    Upcoming MAPP Test – The General Education/Core Curriculum Committee has decided to use the Measurement of Academic Progress (MAPP) test.  This test will be used to assess the skills of ACC students who are close to graduation.  Six hundred students have been randomly selected to take the test and instructors are advised to encourage these students to participate and do their best on the exam.

h.)    SOS - Jan Smith and Laura Tacheny attended a training session for trainers on the System of Success.  The training is designed to assist instructors both identify students who are termed to be at risk and then direct them to the appropriate resources so that they can be assisted.  Jan announced that she and Laura would be offering an in house training for the department in early April.

4.) Discussion Items

a.) Institutional Membership – James announced to everyone in the meeting that every program in our department was allowed to select an Institutional Membership with a Professional Organization.  Allen Underwood used his NASA Trip as an example.  Allen mentioned some of the benefits such as various grants and scholarships that would benefit faculty and students once we (Physics) signed up to have the college pay for the Institutional Membership.  Everyone seemed to be very interested, so it was decided that one person from each program in our department would be selected to make sure that a request for an Institutional Membership for an Institutional Organization would be submitted to James for processing.  The individuals selected were George Staff for Environmental Science, Bob Blodgett for Geology, Allen Underwood for Physics, Saad Eways for Engineering and James Heath for Astronomy. 

b.) Engineering Equipment – Saad Eways mentioned to everyone in the meeting that there was  $5,000 left over from a sub-grant of $25,000 that UT gave Engineering 2 years ago.  It was decided that this money would be used to purchase equipment to do demonstrations and other things in the Mechanics of Materials class.  Saad and Allen Underwood found a machine that would do almost all the tests you would need to do in the Mechanics of Materials class.  The information was shared with everyone in the meeting.  There were discussions on the cost and other issues concerning the machine.

c.) Program Review Materials – It was announced that the Program Review Materials are due at the end of March for each instructional program.  There are only three questions that need to be answered.  The first was to identify the recommendations from the program’s most recent intensive program review.  The second was to discuss the improvements that the program has implemented in response to those recommendations. And the last was to discuss the most important recommendations that the program still needs to address.  Jim Heath had already completed his update so it was passed around for suggestions and approval as well as to incite progress on the other updates.

d.) Budget Process 2007 - A list of items for the budget process was passed around.  There were discussions on the items.  James Friedrichsen announced that our portion of the Budget Process was scheduled to be completed by Monday at 8:00am after Spring Break. 

5.) Action Items:

a.) Department Chair Election – George Staff bravely volunteered to be the election coordinator.  Everyone was asked if there were any nominees for the Physical Sciences Department Chair.  Paul Williams nominated himself.  There will be an election at our April department meeting.

b.) Tour of CYP - Everyone took a tour of the Cypress Creek Campus.

 6.) New Business:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee

March 2, 2007

 

Participants                    James Friedrichsen,  John Cise, Allen Underwood, Saad Eways, Paul Nacozy, Elliot Richmond, James Heath, Paul Williams,  C.D. Rao, Dean Becker, Larry Wigginton, Chris Cavalli, Jeff Bechtold, Dale Biggs, Eric Ebner, Michael McGraw, Clyde Springen,

 

 

All other items were tabled at this time in order to work on determining the shortlist for our Engineering Textbook selection process which took ample amount of time to complete the deliberations and repeated voting.  The final results were as follows:

 

Engineering Physics Textbook shortlist

The result of the Engineering Physics Textbook shortlist is as followed:

 

1.  Essential University Physics by Wolfson 1st ed. Vols. 1&2 (Addison Wesley)

2.  Physics for Engineers and Scientists by Ohanian & Markert 3rd ed. Vol. 1 (Norton)

3.  Physics for Scientists and Engineers by Tipler & Mosca 6th ed. Vol. 1 (Freeman)

4.  University Physics by Young & Freedman 12th ed. Vol. 1 (Addison Wesley)

5.  Understanding Physics by Cummings, Laws, Redish, & Cooney 1st ed. (Wiley)

 

James will send out assignments for the faculty involved with the process in the next week and we will have our in depth discussion at the April meeting, where everyone reports on their findings.

 

The final vote will be held at our May meeting after a second brief discussion.

 

 

 

 

 

Minutes of GEOL/ESTE Subcommittee

March 2, 2007

 

 

There was no GEOL/ESTE Subcommittee meeting.