Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics at Two-Year Colleges: Best Practices of Physics Programs by Mary Beth Monroe, Thomas L. O’Kuma, and Warren Hein Edited by Melanie J. Norton With support from: The National Science Foundation American Association of Physics Teachers Lee College Southwest Texas Junior College Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics at Two-Year Colleges: Best Practices of Physics Programs A Program of the American Association of Physics Teachers Mary Beth Monroe Southwest Texas Junior College Thomas L. O’Kuma Lee College Warren Hein American Association of Physics Teachers Edited by Melanie J. Norton University of Southern Mississippi SPIN-UP/TYC A project of the American Association of Physics Teachers Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics at Two-Year Colleges Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics at Two Year Colleges: Best Practices of Physics Programs ©2005 American Association of Physics Teachers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without prior permission from the American Association of Physics Teachers. Published and Distributed by: The American Association of Physics Teachers One Physics Ellipse College Park, MD 20740-3845 U.S.A. www.aapt.org 301-209-3333 With support from: The National Science Foundation. Grant #DUE-0203862 American Association of Physics Teachers Southwest Texas Junior College Table of Contents Notes from the Project Directors . iii Executive Summary . viii Editor’s Comments . xiii Chapter 1. The TYC Story . 1 Students 2 Departments, Programs, and Faculty 3 Two-Year College Organizational Structure 4 Chapter 2. Project Overview . 8 Brief Background History 8 SPIN-UP/TYC Project 9 The Purpose of Site Visits 10 The Training and Planning Conference 11 Selection Process for the TYC Site Visits 15 The Site Visits 17 Writing and Planning Conference 19 AIP Survey of TYC Physics Programs 21 Additional Site Visits 21 Chapter 3. Best Practices . 23 Focus on Faculty 23 Focus on Students 34 Focus on Faculty and Administration 40 Role of Two-Year Colleges in Serving Technical Programs in Physics 48 Chapter 4: Critical Issues . 54 Two-Year College Involvement with Pre-College Education 54 Role of Two-Year Colleges in Serving Underrepresented Groups in Physics 59 Chapter 5: Project Findings . 62 SPIN-UP/TYC Case Studies 63 Amarillo College, Amarillo, TX 63 Delta College, University Center, MI 66 Estrella Mountain Community College, Avondale, AZ 69 Gainesville College, Gainesville, GA 73 Green River Community College, Auburn, WA 76 Howard Community College, Columbia, MD 79 Lord Fairfax Community College, Middletown, VA 82 Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus, Miami, FL 85 Mount San Antonio College, Walnut, CA 89 Rose State College, Midwest City, OK 93 SPIN-UP/TYC Project Report i Findings from 2003 SPIN-UP/TYC Background Survey of Two-Year College Physics Programs . 96 Introduction 96 Background Data 96 Program Data 99 Noncurricular Initiatives 103 Appendices A. SPIN-UP/TYC – Core Research Questions, Indicators & SVT Manual 109 B. The Training and Planning Conference 113 C. Site Selection Criteria & the Site Selection Instrument 126 D. TYC Site Host Institution Documents 132 E. The Writing and Planning Conference 137 F. Survey of Two-Year College Physics Programs 144 G. Presentations, Publications, and Workshops on SPIN-UP/TYC 148 ii SPIN-UP/TYC Project Report Introduction Notes from the Project Directors About this document During the last two decades, introductory physics education has experienced much change in how physics is taught and even what topics are taught. The physics community is now advocating “physics for all,” while at the same time trying to identify successful practices that improve the attraction and retention of physics majors, particularly from underrepresented groups. Toward this end the National Task Force for Undergraduate Physics (NTFUP), a collaborative effort of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the American Physical Society (APS), conducted 20 site visits of successful physics departments at four-year colleges and universities.* The Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics at Two-Year Colleges (SPIN-UP/TYC) is a parallel and cooperative effort to identify successful practices among the 1200 community colleges within our country. The summary of the findings from the SPIN-UP/TYC Project can be found in the Executive Summary. The Editor’s Comments refer to the impact of this report on the larger community. Although two-year colleges enroll just under half of all first-time college students in the United States, many Americans are not aware of the characteristics that set them apart from four- year colleges and universities. Chapter 1 introduces the two-year college (TYC), its similarities and differences with four-year colleges/universitis, and the advantageous position these local colleges have in taking physics to the populace. In Chapter 2, the different phases of the 18-month project are described: (1) the development of the instruments for identifying successful TYC physics programs and selecting successful physics programs to visit; (2) the training of the four-year college and two-year college faculty in conducting TYC site visits; (3) the visitation and reporting process employed by each of the 10 teams; (4) the development of the 10 Case Studies; and (5) the review of the Case Studies and the AIP Background Survey leading to the identification of factors contributing to the success of these exemplary physics programs. During a special Writing and Planning Conference in July 2003, nine of the project faculty, representing both two-year and four-year institutions, critiqued the Case Studies and the AIP Findings from the 2003 Background Survey for the purpose of identifying common factors contributing to the academic success of the visited physics programs. These factors, which can be replicated by other physics and science programs, and additional conclusions, are discussed in Chapter 3. As described in Chapter 2 of this major report, two-year colleges actually comprise three constituencies: community colleges, junior colleges and technical colleges. While the 10 physics programs visited during 2002–2003 characterize successful academic programs at community and junior colleges, these programs do not serve strong technical education components. Therefore the project leadership identified and organized site visits to two technical programs with demonstrated excellence in physics education. These two visits are a major first effort by the physics community to better understand the functional differences between physics programs targeting academic studies and those serving technical/vocational education. The last section of * Strategic Program for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics (SPIN-UP) was a project sponsored by AAPT, AIP, and APS with a generous grant through the ExxonMobil Foundation to conduct 20 site visits to successful undergraduate physics programs. The complete report can be downloaded from: http://www.aapt.org/Projects/ntfup.cfm. SPIN-UP/TYC Project Report iii Chapter 3 reports these findings. Chapter 4 reports the activities at the visited two-year colleges, addressing two critical issues Notes being reviewed by many physics departments, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Physical Society: (1) the science preparation of future K-12 teachers, and (2) the recruitment and retention of members from underrepresented groups to physics studies. The SPIN-UP/TYC initiative is a major first-effort of the physics community to document reasons for programmatic success and to assess the impact of reforms implemented in physics teaching at two-year colleges. Many outstanding TYC physics programs responded to our Site Selection Instrument. From these, 10 were selected as exemplary based on the criteria of our study. Their Case Studies, representing a sample of the many successful physics programs at two- year colleges in our country, are reported in Chapter 5. During the term of the SPIN-UP/TYC project, the Statistics Research Division of AIP administered a background survey of the two-year colleges nationwide. The findings of this survey can also be found in Chapter 5. Special Acknowledgments We thank the National Science Foundation, the American Institute of Physics, and our home institutions—Lee College, Southwest Texas Junior College, and the American Association of Physics Teachers—for their support of our activities. We are grateful to the members of our Advisory Committee, our project evaluator, and the editor of this document for helping us gain the insight we needed to train the visiting teams, identify the indicators for exemplary practices, and report the findings of our site visits to a broad and diverse audience. Most importantly, we extend a very special thanks to the physics faculty at each visited campus, their administrations, science faculties, support staff, and students, and the physics faculty serving as members/consultants for the SPIN-UP/TYC visiting teams. Their contributions of time, expertise, and money, described in detail in Chapter 2, were key in helping us identify and communicate best practices among two-year colleges for recruiting