Presently our department faculty includes 15 tenured or
tenure-track members, 5 visitors, 4 affiliates, and one administrative
professional (AP) with some teaching duties, and a number of
continually changing adjunct instructors. Our tenure-track faculty
are excellent educators who actively engage students in the classroom
and in the laboratory. Our research backgrounds span a diverse range
of experimental, theoretical, computational and pedagogical fields,
including astronomy, atomic and molecular physics, solid-state
physics, acoustics, gravitation and cosmology, and physics education
research. Our full time faculty members hail from four continents,
and with 26% women (5 of 19) our department slightly above the
national average for gender diversity in faculty among bachelors
degree granting institutions.[1]
The majors whom we serve.
We currently have 46 students majoring in physics, approximately
27% whom are also in the Honors College. For the past three years we
have graduated 7-10 graduates per year puts GVSU in the 80th
percentile of bachelor's-only physics departments.[2] In the last five
years our majors have been graduating in a timely fashion and at a
higher rate. This success is in part to the dedicated faculty and a
sustained effort to offer upper-level selective courses on a regular
basis. Our majors complete an extensive program that provides a
strong background in experimental and theoretical physics. At the
same time our program provides sufficient flexibility, partly
due to the junior and senior level selective courses that we
offer, such that our students become prepared for a diverse
array of career paths. Many of our majors succeed in graduate
programs at universities across the country; for example, in recent
years we have placed students in prestigious medical physics and Ph.D.
physics programs such as those at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee,
University of Michigan, Montana State, Vanderbilt, Rice, George
Washington University, Washington State, Colorado State, UNC-Chapel
Hill, and the U.S. Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program. Others go on to
serve the community as secondary school teachers or as workers and
leaders in industry.
Other students whom we serve.
In addition to our majors and minors, physics provides instruction
for a large number of other programs at the university. In fact, more
than 90% of the work we do as teachers is dedicated to general
education courses and to service courses for other disciplines (such
as engineering, chemistry, mathematics, and the various biological and
health-related sciences). The teaching mission of the department.
GVSU physics faculty members are dedicated to providing quality
innovative, student-centered, rigorous instruction to all students who
elect to study physics as well as to those who are required to study
physics. We strive to use active-learning techniques in which
students obtain firsthand experience with physical phenomena and work
closely with us and with their peers. Thus our teaching effectiveness
is greatly enhanced by having small class sizes and appropriately
equipped classrooms and laboratories. These facilities must include
sufficient resources for the maintenance and acquisition of equipment
for classroom demonstrations, service-course laboratories, and
upper-level laboratories. As is reported consistently in physics
education research literature, teaching environments that meet all of
these needs are essential for the meaningful learning of physics.[3]
The scholarship of the department.
GVSU physics faculty value research as a crucial venue for
professional development and for making contributions to the field.
Much of the independent research by faculty is made possible by
collaborating with colleagues from other institutions. Faculty also
value student research as a unique form of teaching. In fact, a key
to the success of our majors is their capstone experience; every
physics major is required to complete a full-year independent research
project under personal supervision of a faculty member and to present
the results in appropriate venues. The capstone provides a unique
transition for our students from the classroom to professions in
physics research or education. (Further details are provided in
Appendix A of the Assessment Plan.)
The service mission of the department.
Many physics faculty engage in service and scholarly work without
non-teaching significant focus time to support such efforts.
Essentially all are actively engaged in university service activities
such as Regional Science Olympiad and workshops for in-service and
pre-service teachers. Recent shifts in composition of department
faculty. The physics department has become accustomed to searching
and hiring new faculty members almost annually, however since AY
2008-09 we have hired only new affiliate and visiting faculty. These
hires have enabled some progress toward the target 9 + 3
workload stipulated in the Faculty Handbook for TT faculty (where at
least 9 workload hours are allocated to teaching and as many as 3
hours may be allocated to significant focus activity). However, this
shift in composition of physics faculty has had many negative
consequences. We are increasingly relying on visiting and adjunct
faculty to meet our teaching obligations; less than 40% of all
teaching contact hours are delivered by TT faculty (to be contrasted
with the stated GVSU goal of 70% or the CLAS goal of 65%). In
addition, much of the non-teaching significant focus must be devoted
to mentoring new faculty, particularly new visitors, and to the
coordination of multiple lecture sections and labs of the same course.
Thus with a significantly smaller percentage of departmental TT
faculty, and with growing enrollments in our service classes, it is
becoming increasingly difficult both to maintain high teaching
standards and to sustain the scholarship and service missions of the
department.
[1] R. Ivie, S. White, A. Garrett, G. Anderson, Women
among Physics and Astronomy Faculty, , College Park, MD:
American Institute of Physics (2013)
[2] Starr Nicholson and Patrick J. Mulvey, Roster of
Physics Departments with Enrollment and Degree Data , College
Park MD: American Institute of Physics (2014)
[3] L.C. McDermott, What we teach and what is learned:
Closing the gap, Am. J. Phys. 59 (4), 301 (1991), E. F.
Redish and R.N Steinberg, Teaching physics: Figuring out
what works, Phys. Today, 52 (1), 24-30 (1999), and R. R.
Hake, Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods:
A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for
introductory physics courses, Am. J. Phys. 66, 64 (1998).
Mission
Physics, as a natural science, is a core component of a liberal
education, and learning science requires the development and application
of critical thinking skills to the natural and man-made world. The
members of the physics department are devoted to learning and teaching
about the ways in which the physical aspects of our existence can be
understood and shaped by qualitative and quantitative reasoning within
the framework of physics, the foundation of the natural sciences.
Vision
The physics department contributes to an extraordinary liberal education
experience for faculty and students by continually developing courses,
programs, research experiences, and outreach activities to foster the
learning of physics. We strive to maintain high quality teaching in all
of our classes. We change the way our students view the world, and
prepare students for diverse career opportunities by developing a strong
foundation of physics knowledge and critical thinking abilities,
laboratory skills, and quantitative literacy. We are a pillar of
support for regional in-service science teachers by expanding and making
more accessible professional development opportunities.
Value Statement
(1) We value excellent teaching by highly qualified faculty in classes
with student-teacher ratios that are amenable to effective
active-learning techniques. (2) We value hands-on problem-posing,
integrated teaching methods that help students develop into
scientifically literate citizens. (3) We value faculty engagement in
fundamental and applied research for its contribution to the larger
physics community and as it informs our teaching and/or invites student
participation. (4) We value regular and predictable course schedules
and budgets so we can give a solid education to our students without
extending time to graduation. (5) We value contribution to the
university community through a variety of interdisciplinary efforts and
liberal education initiatives. (6) We value contributions to the
community beyond the university through a variety of outreach activities.
Strategic Priorities, outcomes, and key objectives
Strategic Priority Area 1: Actively engage learners at all levels.
Outcome A: Grand Valley's learning environment is personal, challenging, and transformational, supporting excellent academic programs and co-curricular opportunities.
Outcome B: Grand Valley is diverse and inclusive.
Outcome C: Grand Valley has mutually beneficial relationships, partnerships, collaborations, and connections with local, state, national, and world communities.
Outcome D: Grand Valley supports innovative teaching, learning, integrative scholarly and creative activity, and the use of new technologies.
Strategic Priority Area 2: Further develop exceptional personnel.
Outcome A: Grand Valley's learning environment is personal, challenging, and transformational, supporting excellent academic programs and co-curricular opportunities.
Outcome B: Grand Valley is diverse and inclusive.
Outcome D: Grand Valley supports innovative teaching, learning, integrative scholarly and creative activity, and the use of new technologies.
Outcome E: Grand Valley strategically allocates its fiscal, human, and other institutional resources.
Strategic Priority Area 3: Ensure the alignment of institutional structures and functions.
Strategic Priority Area 4: Enhance the institution's image and reputation.
Outcome A: Grand Valley's learning environment is personal, challenging, and transformational, supporting excellent academic programs and co-curricular opportunities.
Outcome C: Grand Valley has mutually beneficial relationships, partnerships, collaborations, and connections with local, state, national, and world communities.
Outcome D: Grand Valley supports innovative teaching, learning, integrative scholarly and creative activity, and the use of new technologies.
