Minutes of Physical Sciences Task Force
Meeting
Time: 10:00 am
Participants: Paul Williams, Lala Guerra,
George Staff, Karl Trappe, Saad Eways, Paul Nacozy, Chris Cavalli, Bob
Blodgett, Jim Heath, Dean Becker, Jeff Bechtold, Elliot Richmond, Ron Johns,
James Friedrichsen, Dale Biggs, Hadi Parhikhteh, Allen Underwood, Sal Valastro,
Mike McGraw, Cindy Carr, John Conners, Jeff Bechtold
1.)
Approval of Agenda
2.) Approval of Minutes from April Meeting
Approval
was postponed until September meeting
3.) Information items
presented:
a.) Documenting
Professional Development Hours - Everyone
was reminded that adjunct faculty are
required to
complete 4 hours of professional development and fulltime faculty 12 hours. They were
also reminded
that the deadline was July 31, 2008. (Note
that the College later changed that date to August 31)
b.) Assessment
Process - It was decided that the
Assessment Process would be discussed in the Physics
breakout session
c.) Astronomy
Storage at RVS – There was a discussion on finding a location for storage for
telescopes at
RVS. It was decided that the Astronomy faculty
would meet in a couple of weeks to decide where the storage would be located at
RVS.
d.) Update on Full time Positions
- Laura Tacheny
will not be returning back from
now 2 fulltime positions available - one in Physics
and one in Geology.
e.) New
Physical Science Safety Coordinator – Paul Nacozy will be the new Physical
Sciences Safety
Coordinator beginning in the Fall 2008 semester -
f.) First Aid Training Session - The Science
Safety Committee is scheduling a half-day, field first aid
training
session on Saturday, September 6th or the 13th of 2008
for science faculty and staff. The
training
will be
conducted by Mark Hawkins, EMT from Austin EMS.
g.) Environmental
Science Awards – Amy Cunningham, Geology and Environmental Science adjunct
professor
received the Rising Star Award from the office of Student Life for sponsoring
the students of the
Environmental
Outreach club. The club also
received the Outstanding Club of the year award and the
Year Award for their 24 hours to Empower bike ride.
h.)
All Day Fieldtrip – It was announced that the Geology faculty and staff
would be conducting an all day
field trip on
Thursday, May 15, 2008 to look for new field trip stops for our Geology
courses.
Participants can count the field trip for professional
developmental hours.
i.) ACColades - Paul Williams
announced that Lala Guerra was awarded the ACColades for Fall 2007.
5.) Discussion
& Action Items:
None
6) New
Business:
None
Minutes of GEOL/ESTE Subcommittee
May 9, 2008
Participants Ron Johns, George Staff, Bob Blodgett, Sal Valastro, Cindy Carr, John Conners
Faculty Field Trip
There was some discussion about what stops to visit and the logistics involved. John and Cindy will finalize the logistical details and we will meet at RGC and proceed from there on May 15.
Interviews
The timeline for interviews is entirely dependent on HR. Realistically, we should try to conduct interviews in the fall and hire in the spring for starting in the Fall, 2009. GSA is in Houston, so setting up a table to meet with potentially interested parties is feasible.
In the absence of an imminent hire, Paul will try to get approval for a temporary full-time position in geology for the fall and spring. There was discussion about promising candidates to be offered this position. It was also agreed that one person should have the position in the fall and another in the spring to emphasize that no one person has a “lock” on the full-time position and to prevent anyone from having that perception.
Minutes of PHYS/AST/ENG Subcommittee
May 9, 2008
Participants Paul Williams, Lala Guerra, Karl
Trappe, Saad Eways, Paul Nacozy, Chris Cavalli, Jim
Heath, Dean Becker, Jeff Bechtold, Elliot Richmond, James Friedrichsen, Dale
Biggs, Hadi Parhikhteh, Allen Underwood, Mike McGraw, Jeff Bechtold
Proportion
of Conceptual Questions on Exams
James
Heath raised a concern regarding the Proportion of Conceptual Questions on
Exams, particularly in Conceptual Physics.
He felt that based on review of instructors exams there were too many computational
problems on exams in the Conceptual Physics course, General
Physics and Engineering Physics and very little Physics Concepts. There was a lengthy discussion on the
item. Suggestions and concerns were
shared.
Reporting
Results of Assessment
Everyone
shared their results and discussed the changes, improvements and suggestions of
the Assessment. It was decided that the
PHYS 1402 assessment was too specific to the Photoelectric effect and needed to
be rewritten to address the broader topic of wave-particle duality. Everyone was also reminded that the
improvement plan was due May 31, 2008. James Friedrichsen offered to draft
spread sheets to report assessment results, to be distributed by the Department
Chair.
Report
of Standards Committee
The
Standard Committee met again and focused on the labs for PHYS 1405. A spread sheet was developed with different
labs in different formats with names associated with the developer of the
particular lab. The individuals will email
Jeff Bechtold with their labs. A final
list should be ready in the fall.