SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2011 - 2012 : Educational Programs :
Geology BS
Geology BS
3 Goals 3 Objectives 3 Indicators 3 Criteria 3 Findings 3 Actions
| GOAL: Sufficient Knowledge Of Geology To Qualify For A Bachelor Of Science |
| Objective |
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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. |
| Indicator |
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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. |
| Criterion |
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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. |
| Finding |
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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. His comments are attached. 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. |
Actions for Objective:
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Dr. Joseph Hill will continue to work to improve student abilities in the area of geologic field studies. Dr. Hill will have the students do an additional pace and compass exercise in the field so that it is a more rugged and less familiar setting than the campus. He will also introduce the Jacob's staff as a field tool for measuring elevation and stratigraphic thickness. 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. Dr. Hill will be teaching Geology of North America this year, and will emphasize the regional geology in the are where the field camp is located. |
| GOAL: Deliver Core Curriculum Education Appropriate To The Geology Discipline |
| Objective |
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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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| All students enrolled in core curriculum geology classes complete a final comprehensive exam related to the foundations of geology. |
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| The average score of core curriculum geology students will be at least 75% on the final comprehensive exam. |
| Finding |
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The average score was approximately 60%, with a range from 50% to 66% from section to section. Only 51% of students answered the factual knowledge questions correctly,74% answered the tentative nature of science questions correctly, and 60% appear to understand that nature is governed by physical laws. 43% answered the logical constructs based on factual knowledge questions correctly compared to 73% last year. Only 71% showed an understanding of the logic of science. Only 60% answered the graph interpretation and inference/reasoning questions correctly. |
Actions for Objective:
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Four areas showed improvement. Understanding that nature is governed by physical laws went from 55% to 60% (compared to 38% the first year). Appreciating the tentative nature of science went from 56% to 74%. An understanding of the logic of science went from 53% to 71%. The primary focus this year was on improving student understanding of graphs by increasing the amount of graph interpretation performed in the labs. The graph interpretation and inference/reasoning score went from 37% to 60%. Still a way to go, but definitely an improvement. The big disappointment was their ability (or inability?) to form logical constructs based on factual knowledge. The scores went from 73% to 43%, which is comparable to the 46% attained the first year. We will have to scrutinize our methodology. Maybe we got lucky last year, but we will need to consider changing or increasing the number of exercises related to this skill. We will also continue to work on graph interpretation skills. |
| GOAL: Development Of A Geologic Knowledge Base |
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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. |
| Indicator |
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| Students completing Geology 3404, Mineralogy, must take a final practical exam that requires the recognition of minerals. |
| Criterion |
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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. |
| Finding |
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A big improvement this year. 74% of the students were able to recognize 15 or more of the 30 minerals presented to them on the final mineral practical (compared to only 13% last year). This is the best performance on this exam for a number of years. |
Actions for Objective:
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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 discussed last year will be fully implemented during the next 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. |
| Closing the Loop |
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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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