Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force
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.)
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.
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.