Assessment : 2012 - 2013 : Educational Programs :
Geology BS
3 Goals 3 Objectives 3 Indicators 3 Criteria 3 Findings 3 Actions
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GOAL: Sufficient Knowledge Of Geology To Qualify For A Bachelor Of Science
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Objective
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Successful Completion Of An Externally Evaluated Geology Field Camp
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All SHSU Geology majors must attend a six credit, externally evaluated capstone Field Camp as a required component of their degree program. Such field camps are typically open to suitably qualified upper level students from geology programs situated anywhere in the country. They are conventionally evaluated using a letter grade system which the Department of Geography and Geology converted to a ranking system.
SHSU Geology students must be nationally competitive at this capstone task as indicated by at least 60% of our participants achieving at least a Limited Mastery ranking.
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Indicator
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Successful Completion Of Field Camp
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All students must attend a six credit hour Field Camp that is externally evaluated on the following basis: Mastery, Limited Master, Adequate Comprehension, Limited Comprehension, and Very Low Comprehension. Students are free to choose from a very wide range of applicable courses, each of which offers slightly different emphases in terms of geographical location and course structure. ALL courses offer a capstone-like review with Mastery reflecting mastery of taught and examined modules as well as high levels of precision in final field review stand-alone projects. A ranking of Limited Mastery reflects mastery of one or more modules but with some imprecision; a ranking of Adequate Comprehension reflects broad comprehension but demonstrates a lack of sophistication in the use of basic course material; rankings of Low Comprehension and Very Low Comprehension reflect low levels of understanding and effort and indicate inappropriate general preparation prior to field camp participation.
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| Criterion |
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60% Of Students Will Achieve At Least A Limited Mastery Ranking By The External Evaluator Of The Field Camp
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60% of students will achieve at least a limited mastery ranking or better by the external evaluator of the Field Camp.
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| Finding |
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Field Camp Results From External Evaluator
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We requested the University of Missouri Field Camp Director to provide feedback concerning strengths and weaknesses of our students because six of our students attended that camp. Her comments were very positive. Most summers we only have two or three students attend each camp, so it is not much of a population to work with. 100% of the students achieved limited mastery. Two of the students achieved Mastery. One student had the highest average on group projects in the entire class of 43 students. The primary difficulty for our students was the Regional Geology Exam.
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Actions for Objective:
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Response To External Evaluation Based On Field Camp Performance
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Dr. Joseph Hill will continue to work to improve student abilities in the area of geologic field studies, especially in the new Field Methods course.
Dr. Hill will have the students do a number of various field exercises on a number of field trips in the Field Methods course Fall 2013. The details are still being developed.
Dr. Hill took the students to Arkansas to have them perform a field mapping exercise. That seems to have improved our student's ability to do field mapping during this year's field camp. We will be returning to that same site this year.
We will all have to work on the student's regional geology abilities.
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GOAL: Deliver Core Curriculum Education Appropriate To The Geology Discipline
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Objective
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Apply Basic Components Of Geology
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Students completing the core curriculum courses will demonstrate an understanding of the basic components of a geological perspective and will recognize geological themes.
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Indicator
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Core Curriculum Geology Comprehensive Exam
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All students enrolled in core curriculum geology classes complete a final comprehensive exam related to the foundations of geology.
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Average Of At Least 75% Accuracy
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The average score of core curriculum geology students will be at least 75% on the final comprehensive exam.
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| Finding |
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The average score was approximately 62%, with a range from 57% to 69% from section to section. Only 77% of students answered the factual knowledge questions correctly,89% answered the tentative nature of science questions correctly, and 66% appear to understand that nature is governed by physical laws. 66% answered the logical constructs based on factual knowledge questions correctly compared to 43% last year. Only 71% showed an understanding of the logic of science. Only 42% answered the graph interpretation and inference/reasoning questions correctly.
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Actions for Objective:
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Four areas showed improvement. Understanding that nature is governed by physical laws went from 60% to 69% (compared to 55% the first year). Appreciating the tentative nature of science went from 74% to 89%. An understanding of the logic of science remained at 71%. The ability to form logical constructs based on factual knowledge went from 43% to 66%. This was an area that we worked on this year. We will also continue to work on graph interpretation skills, since that score went from 60% down to 42%.
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GOAL: Development Of A Geologic Knowledge Base
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Objective
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After completing Geology 3404, students will be able to recognize minerals.
Every geology student must take Geology 3404, Mineralogy. One of the objectives of this course is to be able to recognize minerals, which is a skill that will be needed when they take the capstone geology field course.
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Indicator
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Final Mineral Practical Exam
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Students completing Geology 3404, Mineralogy, must take a final practical exam that requires the recognition of minerals.
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60 percent of the students will be able to recognize 15 or more of the 30 minerals presented to them on the final mineral practical.
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| Finding |
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57% of the students were able to recognize 15 or more of the 30 minerals presented to them on the final mineral practical (down from
74% last year, but still better than the 13% the previous year).
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Actions for Objective:
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Mineral Practical Performance
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The instructor spent more time working with students on the fundamentals of mineral recognition. The instructor visited with the students to discuss different strategies that could be used to improve mineral recognition skills. A flow chart method that we used last year was modified for this mineralogy class. We will continue with a Friday afternoon help session for the Physical Geology lab (GEOL 1103) to improve student's ability to recognize minerals at the freshman level.
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Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement"
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Many of the field studies weaknesses that were identified last year seemed to have been resolved. The field camp director seems quite pleased with the training students received at SHSU. It is the Geology Program's intention to continue achieving the same level of student preparation. Actually, we are hoping to improve on it by adding a field methods course in 2013-2014. The Form B for the course is making its way through the current curriculum cycle. The general core curriculum courses are undergoing changes in response to the core curriculum revision slated for Fall, 2014. This year we made some headway in some areas, but slid backwards in another area. Therefore, we will be working on improving performance and perhaps expanding the evaluation instrument. Mineral recognition seems to be improving, but we will still be trying some different methods aimed at long term retention.
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Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement"
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Our students did show the same level of preparation for field camp as last year's students. The field methods course was approved and will be offered for the first time Fall 2013. We are making adjustments to general core curriculum courses in preparation for Fall, 2014. Progress was taking place in terms of mineral recognition, but there were some student dishonesty issues that clouded the results on the final mineral practical.
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Plan for Continuous Improvement
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Field Methods will be offered for the first time during Fall, 2013. This course and a review of regional geology concepts for students attending field camp next summer will hopefully improve student performance in field camp and improve their abilities for their future endeavours. A number of core curriculum revision measures (required by Fall, 2014) will be tested in our general core curriculum courses. Mineral recognition will once again be a priority, but will be challenging this year because the class is very large.
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