Georgia College & State University Department of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy Example of a thriving Physics Program Ken McGill
Georgia College & State University is Georgia's designated public liberal arts university, offering undergraduate programs of study in an inviting residential college setting to students who are motivated to make a difference in the world. We prefer to call ourselves Georgia College so we are not confused with Georgia State University. Approximately 6,000 undergraduate students, and 1000 graduate students. High performing students with the third highest SAT scores in the state, and very close to second place behind Georgia Tech. Acceptance rate of 48%. Very traditional student body with an average age of 20. Second highest four-year graduation rate in the state. 98.5% of our students are Georgia residents.
In 2010 the University System of Georgia approved reinstating the Physics program In 1972 we lost our Physics program to help create a Business degree program. According to the US census and AIP statistics, Georgia ranked 48 th in the country for per capita degrees conferred in Physics. In 2010 the entire state produced only 2 qualified High School Physics teachers http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/gcttable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000us&-_box_head_nbr=gct-t1-r&- ds_name=pep_2007_est&-_lang=en&-format=us-9s&-_sse=on http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/reports/physrost.pdf Pop (mil) # degrees degrees per mega-capita Rank Utah 2.579535 121 46.91 1 Massachusetts 6.434389 244 37.92 2 Colorado 4.766248 166 34.83 3 Minnesota 5.154586 174 33.76 4 Maine 1.31491 42 31.94 5 Oregon 3.691084 110 29.80 6 Vermont 0.620778 18 29.00 7 Pennsylvania 12.40282 346 27.90 8 Iowa 2.972566 76 25.57 9 Rhode Island 1.061641 26 24.49 10 Montana 0.946795 23 24.29 11 Maryland 5.602017 130 23.21 12 Virginia 7.640249 167 21.86 13 New York 19.28199 411 21.32 14 Wisconsin 5.57266 118 21.17 15 Washington 6.37491 133 20.86 16 Connecticut 3.495753 68 19.45 17 Nebraska 1.763765 34 19.28 18 New Hampshire 1.311821 24 18.30 19 New Mexico 1.942302 34 17.51 20 Illinois 12.77704 221 17.30 21 Louisiana 4.243288 73 17.20 22 Indiana 6.302646 106 16.82 23 Michigan 10.10232 164 16.23 24 California 36.24987 574 15.83 25 Delaware 0.852747 13 15.24 26 South Carolina 4.330108 63 14.55 27 Kentucky 4.204444 60 14.27 28 New Jersey 8.666075 122 14.08 29 South Dakota 0.788467 11 13.95 30 Ohio 11.46351 158 13.78 31 Idaho 1.463878 20 13.66 32 Kansas 2.755817 36 13.06 33 Missouri 5.837639 72 12.33 34 North Carolina 8.869442 101 11.39 35 Arkansas 2.809111 31 11.04 36 Oklahoma 3.577536 39 10.90 37 Arizona 6.165689 65 10.54 38 Wyoming 0.512757 5 9.75 39 Tennessee 6.074913 59 9.71 40 West Virginia 1.808699 17 9.40 41 Mississippi 2.899112 26 8.97 42 Texas 23.40763 208 8.89 43 Florida 18.05751 146 8.09 44 North Dakota 0.63746 5 7.84 45 Puerto Rico 3.925971 30 7.64 46 Alaska 0.67745 5 7.38 47 Georgia 9.34208 67 7.17 48 Hawaii 1.278635 9 7.04 49 Alabama 4.59024 24 5.23 50 Nevada 2.492427 7 2.81 51
Since 2010 we have enjoyed tremendous growth. In 2012 we established a Dual-Degree (3-2) program with Georgia Tech. We retain the Physics Only students at a much better rate than the Pre-Eng students. About half the Pre-Eng students change to Physics Only from the 3-2. Entering Freshmen Total of Pre-Eng and Physics 80 200 4 12 0 12 2 13 13 51 15 38 15 60 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Registered Frehmen Female Male 31 7 36 20 31 77 45 97 54 102 64 134 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Registered Physics Only Pre-Eng 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Academic Year Fall Semester
This year, if the 2010 AIP statistics hold, we should be in the top 20 programs for the country 2016 we will confer 20 degrees in Physics, and make the top 10 for Bachelors-Only Departments Our first major group of 3-2 Dual-Degree will graduate in 2017, and will double the number of degrees conferred in Physics for Georgia College Our total at this point should be approximately 40 Number of Physics Degrees conferred 20 2 18 0 0 1 1 3 1 2 2 6 3 13 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Degrees Conferred Female Male 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Academic Year 2015 2016
Strategic Programs for Innovations in Undergraduate Physics (SPIN-UP): Project Report Executive Summary indicates that successful departments all have the following attributes tremendous growth. A widespread attitude among the faculty that the department has the primary responsibility for maintaining or improving the undergraduate program. That is, rather than complain about the lack of students, money, space, and administrative support, the department initiated reform efforts in areas that it identified as most in need of change. A challenging, but supportive and encouraging undergraduate program that includes a well-developed curriculum, advising and mentoring, an undergraduate research participation program, and many opportunities for informal student-faculty interactions, enhanced by a strong sense of community among the students and faculty. Strong and sustained leadership within the department and a clear sense of the mission of its undergraduate program. A strong disposition toward continuous evaluation of and experimentation with the undergraduate program.
Specific Strategies implemented by Georgia College Time Space Faculty Support Student Support Undergraduate Research
Specific Strategies implemented by Georgia College Time Clearly it is necessary for faculty to have time to support the Physics program development and growth. We facilitated this by determining instruction load on contact hours not credit hours. We also converted service courses for the core curriculum to majors course. In addition, faculty are given credit for undergraduate research in their faculty evaluation.
Specific Strategies implemented by Georgia College Space At the beginning the only space allotted for the Physics program was less than 5000 sq. ft. We now have a 1300 sq. ft. Instrument Machine Shop, and have added a new observatory. In addition, we are planning for an additional 10,000 sq. ft. research and lab space in a $9,000,000 renovation project.
Specific Strategies implemented by Georgia College Faculty Support In AY11 we had only three Physics faculty members, but all were instrumental in designing the program from the ground up. Faculty volunteered to teach overloads to demonstrate that we could populate the classes. In addition, when service courses were decreased more vocal degree programs (e.g. Biology, Health Sci, Nursing) supported additional faculty. This strategy has lead to the hiring of three additional faculty for a total of six Physics faculty. We are hiring a seventh faculty in AY16. By fall of 2017 we will hire another two faculty for the renovated space in Beeson Hall for a total of nine faculty.
Specific Strategies implemented by Georgia College Student Support We start our students in a cohort model. We identify English, Math, Chemistry and Physics classes that are only populated with Physics majors. We also have a seminar sequence for each class (i.e. freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior seminar). This builds a sense of camaraderie, and an identification with a class that wants to graduate together in four years. We also created a flexible schedule that offers upper-division classes both fall and spring of every year, even if they had low enrollments. We hired a professional advisor to guide them through their degree. We avoided creating pet-courses that students must have to graduate.
Specific Strategies implemented by Georgia College Undergraduate Research Each faculty member has a four-year research and travel scholarship to award to an incoming freshmen. This insures that each faculty member will have a freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior funded in their research group to develop longevity, and a history of support. Other students join the groups out of interest, but the core four students maintain the identity of the group Physics Only students must complete a research project.
Specific Strategies implemented by Georgia College that led to our success Time Space Faculty Support Student Support Undergraduate Research
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