ASSESSMENT PLAN
Revised 1994-95
The Physics Department received funding from NSF and FIPSE to develop new approaches for
the teaching of PHYS 205-206, General Physics, and PHYS 275-276, General Physics with
calculus. As a part of the assessment for these grants, tests have been developed and used
on a national level to pre and post test physics students. This test is a measure of what
our students know coming in and of what improvement these courses make in their critical
thinking skills and knowledge base.
Removed 1994-95
Feedback from graduates taking GRE exams which allow comparison to national norms in
subject matter knowledge can be used to obtain an assessment of this goal. We also are
considering use of tests which measure a student's general knowledge of physics if we can
find one which is not too expensive to obtain or administer. |
1999-2000 ASSESSMENT
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1998-99 ASSESSMENT
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1997-1998 ASSESSMENT
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1996-97 ASSESSMENT
The department continued to give pre and post tests to students in general physics
sections, in both the newly developed activity physics sections and the traditional
general physics sections. Students demonstrated preparation equal to the national norm in
the pre tests. The post tests continue to show a significantly higher level of
understanding of the concepts of physics in the general physics classes taught using an
activity approach.Current staffing
and lack of sufficient laboratories prevent us from converting additional sections of
traditional physics to activity physics. Our plans for the future renovation of BHS
include the creation of an additional laboratory so that we can convert the remaining
physics sections to the new approach. |
1995-96 ASSESSMENT
The test used to assess students' backgrounds prior to enrolling in physics, continue to
indicate preparation equal to national norms. Those students who are in the pilot activity
class sections improve significantly more than those in the traditional lecture/laboratory
sections, equaling the national norms. The department is seeking funding to continue these
sections when the grant presently funding them expires. |
1994-95 ASSESSMENT
This was the first year for use of the pre and post test that were developed over a period
of 8 years by physics teachers active in introducing new approaches to teaching physics.
The pretest scores for students indicate that their backgrounds in physics coming into UNK
are at national norms. Their improvement, indicated by post test, is significantly higher
in the new activity class approach being developed, than in the traditional
lecture/laboratory approaches. |
1993-94 ASSESSMENT
Some students have given us feed back on Graduate Record Examinations. Their scores tend
to confirm what is known nationally, that our students have high verbal and quantitative
scores. We understand a test is being developed that may be useful. |
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assessment
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17 May 2005
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