Program Name
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Division
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Submission Date
1a. Provide a brief description of the program and how it supports the college’s Mission and Values Statements, its Diversity Statement, CSM’s and SMCCCD’s Strategic Plans, and the college’s Educational Master Plan. You may also discuss any factors that have impacted the program and its enrollment. Include changes in student populations, statewide initiatives, transfer requirements, advisory committee recommendations, legal mandates, workforce development and employment opportunities, and community needs.
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| The Astronomy Department offers the following courses in astronomy:
At the 100 level: ASTR 100 Introductory Astronomy, ASTR 125 Stars, Galaxies and Cosmology, and ASTR 115 Solar System Astronomy.
At the 200 level: ASTR 200 Introduction to Astrophysics, ASTR 203 Astroimaging Techniques, and ASTR 204 Application of Astroimaging Techniques.
The Astronomy Department also offers the following labs in astronomy at the 100 level: ASTR 101 Astronomy Lab and ASTR 103 Observational Astronomy Lab.
Taking the introductory courses and labs allows the student to get a basic understanding of the universe and all that is contained within it, as well as helping to satisfy general education requirements. More advanced students use the observatory to pursue independent research on spectroscopy, photometry, and astroimaging. All of the courses and labs are UC and CSU transferrable.
We have had the first students graduate in our Astroimaging and Observatory Operation certificate program. Three students received their certificates at the conclusion of the Spring 2016 semester. We have made the prerequisites corequisites for this course, in order for students to be able to take astrophysics and astroimaging concurrently with their advanced physics courses. ASTR 200 has always suffered fro low enrollment. We traced the low enrollment to the requirement that students must take certain Physics prerequisites. We have made the Physics prerequisites corequisites and hope that this change will reflect an increase in enrollment.
Our AOOC program has been impacted by low enrollments in the ASTR 200, 203, and 204 classes. We previously had been able to run them with 6 to 7 students each, but have been prohibited from doing so, until the enrollment gets to at least 15 students. That is not realistic, since these are very specialized courses that attract a handful of very serious students. The AOOC certificate provide possible jobs for our advanced students. | |
2a. Describe the results of your previous Program Review’s action plan.
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| We have hired a full-time faculty member, the first since 1998. She is and will be teaching the regular battery of astronomy classes and perhaps introducing some new ones. The addition of this new faculty member will positively impact the number of successful students in our program.
We have also hired a part-time technician, who has been able to help our full time technician take care of our planetarium and observatory. In addition, this new member helps us in our outreach programs to the community. | |
2b. Program coherence and effectiveness: Explain any curriculum changes since last program review, including SLO alignments.
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| We have had to temporarily halt our AOOC certificate program, due to the fact that we have not been able to run our ASTR 203 and 204 Advanced Astroimaging classes. We have always been able to get 6 or 7 students, however, we were told that we need at least 15 students, to be able to run these classes. The problem is that our observatory work room can only hold 6 or 7 students, due to its small size. The Astronomy Coordinator and I have to talk to the Committee on Instruction to see if there is still any way we can continue to run these classes with these small numbers of students. In addition, we have not been able to run our ASTR 200 class, Introduction to Astrophysics, again due to the small number of students (6 or 7) interested in the class. I do believe that there should be some sort of exemption for certificate programs such that a small, but dedicated group of students could still continue to take classes and obtain their certificate. | |
Student Success and Equity
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2d. Provide an update on any long-term plans that are still in progress (if applicable).
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| Astronomy would like to incorporate an AS-T, an Associate in Science for Astronomy. Many of our students transfer to UC Santa Cruz, San Francisco State and other colleges to pursue advanced degrees in astronomy and physics. We feel that our courses in Solar System, Stars, Galaxies, and Cosmology, Observational Astronomy Lab, Introduction to Astrophysics, etc are more than enough to support such a program. | |
Course and Program Assessment
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3b. General Education / Institutional assessment. Discuss participation in any General Education, Core Competencies, institutional or interdisciplinary assessment activities.
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| Not applicable at this point. | |
Description of Planning
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4b. What will your program do to increase student success and promote student equity in the next two years? What kind of professional development and institutional support will be engaged and enacted to meet these goals?
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| Although the number of minorities in our astronomy classes equals or slightly surpasses the other disciplines in the Mathematics/Science Division, we would definitely like to increase those numbers. One drawback is that minority students don’t find many minority faculty teaching them. I believe that I am the only African-American faculty member in the sciences and there are very few other minority faculty teaching in the sciences. I believe another way to increase minority student enrollment is if we had more ethnocentric planetarium shows. We were talking with Jose Rocha of METaS about purchasing some Spanish language planetarium shows. In addition, we are looking into getting a planetarium show that highlights the techniques used by Polynesian wayfarers to cross the Pacific Ocean. Having audiences see these shows would enable minorities to see that they do indeed have a connection to Astronomy. | |
4c. Describe other professional development activities and institutional support and collaborations that would most effectively ensure that the program achieve its goals and plans.
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| I gave a talk on the research our astronomy students have conducted to the Robotic Telescope, Student Research and Education (RTSRE) this summer and met many other astronomy educators. I came away with some excellent lab experiments that my colleague and I can do in the planetarium. In addition, I received an account and instruction on connecting to a remote observatory. This would enable students to be able to take images of astronomical objects from their desktop. | |