Program Review and Six Year Report

Fall 2009

Program Review and Six year Report

Physics Department

July 1, 2011

Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Departmental Mission and Role

3. Statistical Information about the Department

4. Programs

5. General Education

6. Resources

7. Conclusions and Long-Term Vision

Appendixes

Executive Summary: The American Physical Society has posted guidelines for evaluating undergraduate physics programs which we have included as appendix A (also at that we have considered in writing this report in addition to the template used at Westmont for all programs.

In this six year report for the physics department, we present our mission statement, our goals and student learning outcomes (SLO’s). We have used ten difference assessment tools to evaluate these SLO’s. These are primarily direct measures but also include authentic and indirect measures. In addition this report includes statistical data on department as required. The Physics Department has faced major challenges during this six year period including losing the Physics Building (and all assessment data) in the 2008 Tea Fire, having members of our faculty absent from the department for sabbaticals and serving college needs (one faculty member spent 2 ½ years as interim Provost, another led an off-campus program for a semester). In light of this we took a fresh look at the whole assessment process developing a new mission statement, goals and SLO’s as well as determining new assessment tools. We have made use of national standards (see above), we have developed a six year assessment program for 2011-2017 and we have established direction for the program as a whole.

The results of the assessment of the Physics Department have led to a number of changes to the program (“closing the loop”). We have made changes to the curriculum to address weaknesses. We are in the process of developing stronger ties to industry to enable greater internship for our engineering oriented students. We are starting an endowment to enable a stronger funding base for student research stipends, laboratory equipment and scholarships for incoming students. We are strengthening our recruitment (e.g. phone calls, e-mails, new media) of students both to increase the numberand diversity of the majors.

1A. Mission Statement and Student Learning Outcomes for the Physics Department:

The mission of the Westmont Physics Department is to prepare students majoring in Physics and Engineering/Physics for graduate school and careers in physics, engineering, education and other professional fields by helping them develop both experimental and theoretical skills in classical and modern physics with opportunities for research and internships. We serve students in other majors by providing challenging courses in physics and astronomy to encourage interest in and understanding of the principles, methods and concepts of the physical sciences. We explore with all of our students the interactions of faith and science with the goal of enabling each student to communicate a mature worldview that incorporates both.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Here we list the goal (e.g. knowledge/critical thinking) followed by the desired outcomes (e.g. Students will have a working knowledge…..)

Knowledge/Critical Thinking (Goal): Students will have a working knowledge of the basic areas of physics: (Mechanics, Electricity & Magnetism, Thermodynamics, Quantum Mechanics) and be able to demonstrate their ability to solve difficult problems, some that include real world applications.

Skills (Goal):

(a)Experimental and Theoretical: Students will be able to formulate a scientific question or purpose, design, setup and implement an experiment, then analyze the data and draw results and conclusions.

(b)Communication: Students will be able to present scientific work both verbally and in writing according to established disciplinary practice.

Christian Orientation(Goal): Students will be able to express an informed understanding of the interactions of the Christian faith and natural science that honors both.

Distinctives from the Philosophy of Education / Institutional Learning Principles/Goals / Departmental Outcomes / Ph 21 / Ph 22 / Ph 23 / Ph 24 / Ph 25 / Ph 26 / Ph 40 / Ph 115 / Ph 121 / Ph 122 / Ph 130 / Ph 142 / Ph 143 / Ph 150 / Ph 151 / Ph 160 / Ph 170 / Ph 195 / Ph 198 / Library / Department Retreat / Alumni Survey / CLA / NSSE / SAILS
Christian, Liberal Arts, Global, Residential and Undergraduate / Christian Understanding / Students should be able to express an informed understanding of the interactions of the Christian faith and natural science that honors both / I / ME
Christian Practices and Affections
Broad Interdisciplinary and Critical Competence / Students should have a working knowledge of the basic areas of physics / I / I / D / D / ME / ME / ME / ME / ME / M / ME / ME / ME / M / ME / M / E
Students should be able to formulate a scientific question or purpose, design, setup and implement an experiment, then analyze the data and draw results and conclusions / IE / I / D / M / M / M / ME / E
Competence in Written and Oral Communication / Students should be able to present scientific work both verbally and in writing according to established disciplinary practice / IE / I / D / M / M / E / ME / E
Research and Technological Skills / Students should be able to formulate a scientific question or purpose, design, setup and implement an experiment, then analyze the data and draw results and conclusions / IE / I / D / M / M / ME
Physical and Emotional Health
Creative Expression
Diversity and Global Awareness
Active Societal and Intellectual Engagement / Students should be able to present scientific work both verbally and in writing according to established disciplinary practice / I / I / D / M / M / M / E
Other

This is also found in Appendix B.

Departmental Mission and Role

2A. Contributions to the College’s Mission

The mission of WestmontCollege is to provide a high quality undergraduate liberal arts program in a residential campus community that assists college men and women toward a balance of rigorous intellectual competence, healthy personal development and strong Christian commitments.

While as noted before:

The Westmont College Physics Department supports the College in multiple ways. Through strong major programs in physics, engineering/physics and the dual degree 3:2 program in engineering we reinforce Westmont’s reputation at a high quality liberal arts program. Offering a broad array of general education courses (see section 1C) in Physical Sciences, Quantitative and Analytical Reasoning and Writing Intensive courses, the Physics Department enhances the liberal arts nature of the College. Through our outreach with the Keck Telescope in the Westmont Observatory we provide a view to the heavens for both Westmont students and the community at large. The challenges and tensions of science versus religion are addressed head on in our courses helping students both inside and outside the sciences the opportunity to develop a mature world view as regards to their Christian faith.

2B. Contributions to General Education

The Physics Department sees the general education courses we teach as an opportunity to reach students of all types and instill a love and appreciation of science. Each full-time member of the department teaches a General Education course (in the Exploring the Physical Sciences category, with two of the three also meeting Quantitative and Analytical Reasoning) that does not serve the major and our part-time faculty member has a GE course in the serving society category that was recently approved by the GE committee for Fall 2011. The courses taught by the full time faculty: Astronomy: Discovering the Universe, Intro. To Physical Science, Physics of Music are offered every year; our part-time instructor’s course: Astrophysics (which involves outreach to local schools with Westmont’s Keck Observatory) is offered alternate years. In addition, we offer calculus based General Physics and Physics for Life Science Majors annually both of which do meet the physical science GE requirement but serve science majors. Our General Physics Laboratory course meets the writing requirement. Finally, our Senior Seminar (offered annually) meets the “Integrating the Major Discipline” category and serves as a capstone class allowing us to evaluate the progress our seniors have made in a variety of areas. From the load data in Appendix C we can see the contribution by year in the GE courses designed for non-science majors (See graph below).

Analysis of GE Course Load graph: During these years the physics department had severe staffing limitations. During this time, despite staffing limitations (which will be discussed in fuller detail later) the Physics Department maintained a commitment to our GE offerings. This included increasing the number of available spots in the classes. With a fully staffed department, we can now offer all three GE courses annually.

Beyond this it is important to instill in our science majors an appreciation that a liberal arts education is critical not just to their development as a well rounded educated person but as a competent scientist as well. Years ago Douglas Aircraft did a study of their engineers who had been with the company for more than 20 years to see what best correlated with long-term success in engineering. Science grades? Engineering grades? Math grades? Overall GPA? It turned out the best correlation was how well the engineering students did in English! Communication skill, especially writing, is critical to success in technical fields.

2C. Support for other College Programs

The physics department at Westmont has always viewed service courses as a high priority in our role to support other programs in the college. The primary (pure) service courses are the Physics for Life science sequence (Ph 11, 13, 14) which involves two lecture courses and a laboratory class. In 2005,after student feedback and departmental discussion, we switched from having the same professor teaching both lecture courses to having a different faculty teach the second semester. This was a conscious decision to enhance student experiences by exposing students to two different teaching styles and providing them with the opportunity to solicit recommendations to medical school or graduate schoolfrom two different faculty members. Below is a graph (from Appendix C) with the number of students in these three courses from 2005-2011. The numbers are mostly reflective of the size the various life science majors (biology, biochemistry, kinesiology). As extra lab sections have been necessary, we have added them to keep the numbers per section such that we could avoid 3 person lab groups. With the move into Winter Hall and the increase in lab space and purchase of new equipment we will have even more flexibility in the future to deal with larger course loads. The real question going forward is whether to add a lab course to accompany the first semester of the sequence. The second semester lab includes experiments covering the material from both semesters but there would be greater depth if there were two lab classes. To make this decision we will talk with the Biology department but also we plan to survey students who have gone through the program in past years. This will be done next year.

It is also true that our General Physics courses (Ph 21, 22, 23, 24—two lecture courses, two labs) serves other majors (primarily mathematics and chemistry but also some life science majors who choose the calculus based sequence) along with our majors. The graph of number of students in Ph 21 & 23 is included in section 3 below.

Statistical Information about the Department

Intro: Recent History

Staffing

The physics department for has had three full time faculty positions since the mid eighties (when the department was restaffed after a number of difficult years following retrenchment). The last full-time hiring was Prof. Warren Rogers in 1994 (following the retirement of George Bate). Since that time there have been sabbaticals that typically have been covered by shifting courses, not offering courses or occasionally a part-time person picking up a class. But in recent years there were some disruptions. Warren Rogers served as interim Provost and Academic Dean from January 2007 until July 2009 and Ken Kihlstrom was gone for the 2008 calendar year for sabbatical and Europe Semester. We hired a full-time temporary hire (Doug Barlow) for the 2007-8 academic year. In addition, we have made use of part-time lab coordinators over the years but this was made into a half-time position in 2007 with the hiring of Tom Whittemore who has a Ph.D. in physics.

Curriculum

The curriculum in our department reflects a desire to serve both physics and engineering oriented students. For the physics students, there is a four year BS (also BA) program designed to prepare students for graduate school. In recent years, we added a senior seminar (also applicable to the engineering students) and an advanced lab. We now require physics majors to participate in either research or the advanced lab. For engineering oriented students we have two options. The first is the 3:2 dual degree program (where a student attends Westmont for 3 years then an engineering university for the final 2 years) receiving a BA from Westmont and an BS in a particular specialization in engineering. Our students have gone to a range of engineering schools (USC, Cal Poly SLO, Cal Berkeley, UC Irvine, Colorado U, UCSB among others). The second option is the four year BS in Engineering/Physics. From this, graduates can either go onto graduate work or go directly into industry. What we do not offer directly is an ABET accredited engineering degree. Over the years we consider it from time to time but have been hesitant for several reasons. First, ABET accreditation requires 80 technical semester units which is about 15 units beyond what Westmont has been comfortable requiring for a major. It would also require staffing changes as currently none of the regular faculty have an engineering degree. So at present it is not under consideration.

Facilities:

Since the mid 80’s the Physics Department had been housed in the original garage of the estate. When the Chemistry Department moved into the WhittierScienceBuilding, the old chemistry building became the physics building. With an area of 3079 sq. ft., the physics building had a 50 seat classroom, three offices, two small research labs, a general physics lab and a lounge area. Everything was pretty cramped and the single lab meant all physics labs had to share the same space leading to the necessity of setting up and taking down of equipment for each lab section. It was clearly not an asset in attracting students. But then in November 2008 the Santa Barbara Tea Fire completely destroyed the PhysicsBuilding and all its contents (including all assessment data). Westmont put up modular buildings to house the department pending completion of the WinterHallScienceBuilding (Fall 2010). Whatever limitations to the program that the old building presented (not to mention the modulars) are eliminated by the new Winter Hall which gives us abundant space and a renewed ability to attract students.

External Reviews

We have not had an external review for the physics program but plan to schedule one during the next six year cycle. Nonetheless, the Science Advisory Council for Westmont (made up of three distinguished retired scientists) who are supportive of Westmont) did a review of the science program at Westmont in 2007. We are including the report in the appendixD. Appendix E is a from the SAC to then Provost Shirley Mullen along with a proposal based on their report. In looking at the sciences as a whole the SAC compared the number of faculty and support staff at Westmont versus other liberal arts colleges we compare ourselves to. Looking in particular at the numbers for physics (# of full time faculty, # or irregular or part time or support staff, average number of graduates per year) the numbers are: Westmont (3,1, 8); Pomona(7,7,8), Harvey Mudd (12,4,21); Reed (7, 0, 14); Whitman(6,0,11);Wheaton (4,0,5);Willamette (4,0,4); Lewis & Clark (6,0,3); Whittier (4,1,4); Occidental (5,0,12). It argued for significant increase in the number of faculty. On this basis, the science division put in a request for a substantial increase in the number of faculty in the sciences. It also is included in the Appendix. Beyond the requested increase in faculty, the report also recommends that research involving undergraduates be counted as part of the teaching load rather than an add-on. It also requested funding for research and grant writing.

Internal Reviews

The physics department wrote annual reports from 2005-2007, 2010 (Appendices F,G,H,I) but did not do reports in 2008-2009. During the two year gap we were facing unusual and severe staffing problems as well as a fire that burn the physics building to the ground in November 2008. In January 2007, Warren Rogers became interim provost for Westmont leaving us shorthanded. When in January 2008 Ken Kihlstrom went on sabbatical (delayed for a year) in the spring, followed by leading Europe Semester in the fall of 2008, Michael Sommermann was left alone to run the department. This led to the sacrificing of writing annual reports until Drs. Rogers and Kihlstrom returned to the department and some semblance of restoring facilities took place. At this point the goal became to revise all of our assessment plans running up to this six year report. This was concerted and successful exercise. Then came the process to collect data to support the assessment of the outcomes.

3A Current Faculty

During the time period of this report the department was comprised of 3 full-time teaching faculty members and a part-time person as the lab coordinator. The three regular faculty members have been at Westmont for 26, 25 and 16 years and all hold the rank of full professor. All of these faculty members are included in the information below. Complete curriculum vitae are available in AppendicesJ, K, L, M