In attendance: Debbie Sackett, John Young, Ya-Ping Huang, Kathy Nabona, Al Dumbuya, Steve Kirschner, Madan Mohan, Matiur Rahman, Chris Uzomba, Bill Cheek, Anita Thurwachter, Mila Woldman, Fred Miller, Lew Barnett, Bobby Shepherd

 Faculty Evaluation Process: The evaluation process for this year was discussed. The deadline for submission of the portfolio and completion of the online form will be February 2, 2001. The faculty serving on the evaluation committee are as follows: Debbie Sackett, John Young, Madan Mohan, Al Dumbuya and Matiur Rahman. The committee will meet February 16, 2001 to evaluate the portfolios.

 Half-time Lab Technician: A tentative committee was formed for hiring of the vacated half-time lab technician position at NRG. Definite committee members are: Al Dumbuya, and Kathy Nabona. Possible committee members are: Art Meyer.

 Textbooks: The question of whether to consider new books this spring was raised for: CHEM 1405 lecture, CHEM 1411/1412 lecture and lab, CHEM 2423/2425 lecture and lab. In all cases the majority vote was to not consider new books this year.

It was decided that it would be best if the lab packets sold to the students for CHEM 1405 were the same at every campus. Two scenarios were considered: (a) all campuses agreed on the same 12 experiments or (b) we all agree on a small number of labs 13-15, where some variations from campus to campus could exist. It was clear to all that the excess labs could not be sold back by the students. A committee was formed that would consider making a proposal to the TF at the next meeting. Members:

 Lab Meetings: A majority vote decided that all faculty will meet lab students during every meeting time listed in the schedule. This includes labs for which "nothing" is scheduled. The first week, when no labs are traditionally scheduled (because of drop/adds), the instructor will be there to greet students, pass out a syllabus, give a pre-test (see below), etc. During the final weeks the instructor will be there to give lab finals (optional), perform make-up labs, pass out lab grades, check out drawers, etc. The Task Force decided this practice will begin in the summer of 2001. It will no longer be a practice to put up a sign the first week of class stating that there are no labs that week.

Unit Level Effectiveness Measures: The current information the Chemistry Department has on Unit Level Effectiveness Measures can be found at http://salvador.austin.cc.tx.us/oiedb/intro.html

We have two expected outcomes:

(1) 70% of the students who took CHEM 1405 and went on to take CHEM 1411 would pass CHEM 1411 with a grade of A, B, or C (mastery of the course).

(2) 70% of the students who took CHEM 1411 and went on to take CHEM 1412 would pass CHEM 1412 with a grade of A, B, or C (mastery of the course).

The following data was collected.

TABLE 1: Grade distribution for students in CHEM 1411 (Fall 1999, Spring 2000 and Summer 2000) vs. the grades for the same students who took CHEM 1405 within the previous 5 years. Also included are grade distributions for those students who did not take CHEM 1405.

CHEM 1411 Grade

TABLE 2: Summary of CHEM 1411 grade distributions for students: (a) having taken CHEM 1405 in the previous 5 years, (b) having not taken CHEM 1405, and (c) all students.

 TABLE 3: Grade distribution for students in CHEM 1412 (Fall 1999, Spring 2000 and Summer 2000) vs. the grades for the same student who previously took CHEM 1411 at ACC. Also included are grade distributions for those students who took General Chemistry I at another institution.

CHEM 1412 Grade

Table 4: Summary of CHEM 1412 grade distributions for students: (a) having taken CHEM 1411, (b) having taken General Chemistry I at another institution, (c) all students.

For the first outcome, the data shows that students in CHEM 1411 have a greater mastery rate if they previously took CHEM 1405, compared to those students whom did not take CHEM 1405. The data also shows that we did not meet our expected outcome of 70% mastery.

For the second outcome, it appears that student who took General Chemistry I at ACC did better in CHEM 1412 that the student who took General Chemistry I at another school. Our students exceeded the expected outcome for this course.

Our goal for the meeting: Interpret the data and make a plan for improvement.

Plans for improvement:

(1) Select common course objective for CHEM 1411 and CHEM 1412 to be used by all instructors. This was done at the end of last semester for CHEM 1405.

(2) Develop a pre-test for CHEM 1411. Our target audience is students who have not taken CHEM 1405. It is planned that this will be a test that the lecture instructor has the option to administer to their students. This could be given during the lab meeting time the first week of class, when drop/adds are still in effect. This will be used as an advising tool only. An instructor cannot, for example, force a student who fails the pre-test to drop the class if the student otherwise has all the correct prerequisites.

Committee members to develop the pre-test: Ya-Ping Huang, Steve Kirschner, Chris Uzomba, Donna Lyon

 Announcements:

More on the reorganization: (a) There will be no Student Liaison positions. (b) Associate Deans will be appointed to perform duties similar (but as yet unspecified) as the old Assistant Deans. (c) More Assistant Task Force Chairs may be assigned. They will begin performing site-based duties. (d) Staffing of the schedule will be given to the Task Force.