Direct Measures
During the physics student's final year, she/he is required to complete the senior research capstone course, PHYS 495. This course requires the student to select a research topic with the help of a mentor faculty member. The student performs of background search of the literature, organizes her/his research procedures, and publicly defends the results of the investigation before the Physics/Physical Sciences faculty, the audience at UNK's Student Research Day, and the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. In addition, the student's research project is evaluated by her/his faculty mentor and other Physics/Physical Sciences Department faculty.
During the physical sciences student's final year, she/he is required to complete the senior methods and curricula of secondary science education, capstone courses PHYS 471 and 472. Students in these courses investigate methods of science instruction and curriculum development and apply these methods and curricula to the development of their own science unit. Evaluation of students is by Physical Science faculty members.
During the student's final year, she/he will take the subject-specific Graduate Record Examination in Physics. The Department of Physics and Physical Sciences pays for this exam, and students include UNK in the list of schools that exam results are sent to. This exam provides our Department with a means of measuring our students' performance against a national sample. In a similar way, students in all our introductory physics and physical sciences class will take a national exam to assess student performance. The results used each year during a Department meeting in a discussion of curricular changes for the coming year.
Objective
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Participants
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Evaluators
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1, 3
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all majors
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External Experts
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Indirect Measures
Following a student's sophomore or junior year, she/he is encouraged to participate in an off-campus Research Experience for Undergraduate Students for one summer at a research university of the student's choice. This program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. NSF pays the student for travel costs and living expenses. The main purpose of this program is to confirm for the student whether graduate school and a career in physics/physical sciences is what she/he wants to do. This program also enhances the student's chance of getting into graduate school. The program also provides valuable apprenticeship experience if the student plans to seek employment after completion of the major. Students do a self-evaluation upon completion of the program, and the Department requests a student evaluation from the summer research mentor. This Field Experience also prepares students for the senior research capstone course. Students electing to do the Field Experience are not required to take the Senior Capstone course. However, they still must present their summer research results at a meeting of the Physics/Physical Science faculty for evaluation.
Each alumnus will be sent a survey one year after graduation. The survey will solicit opinion as merit of the physics/physical sciences curriculum. The results for each item will be averaged. The survey will also contain items designed to determine if the alumnus has acquire any of the following:
- admission to a graduate school
- type of employment
Assessment Cycle:
Data for each of the measures in the Assessment Plan for majors and General Studies will be collected each year. An analysis of the data for majors will be conducted every three years. The analysis report for majors will be filed in October 2007 for 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and each subsequent cycle. During the data collection cycle, the annual report will consist of a listing of the measures administered and either number of students participating or scores. The data collected for the General Studies assessments will be reported annually.