Astronomy/Physics
2025-2026 Program Review

Our department offers engaging general education courses in physics and astronomy that spark curiosity about how the universe works. We also provide the full sequence of physics courses required for transfer into high-demand STEM majors such as engineering, computer science, biology, chemistry, and physics.

Through clear instruction, collaborative learning, and hands-on laboratory experiences, students develop strong analytical and problem-solving skills. The department fosters a supportive and inclusive learning environment that welcomes students from all backgrounds, values diverse perspectives in STEM, and expands access to rigorous scientific study.  Whether discovering physics for the first time or preparing for a STEM pathway, students are supported in building the confidence and foundation needed for success in courses once they have transferred and beyond.

In about half of our courses, African American students have disproportionate impact (DI) of over 20%.  Female and Hispanic/Latino students, and students near or below the poverty level also have statistically significant DI in many of our courses.  

The majority of full-time faculty in our department have made adjustments to their classes to try to address disproportionate impact.  This includes zero-cost textbooks, soft deadlines, extra time on exams, replacing high-stakes assessments with multiple low-stakes assessments, allowing students to redo some assignments, dropping the lowest scoring assignments, making deadlines and expectations as clear as possible, and providing homework help videos in Canvas.

To create a more inclusive learning environment, we recently completed a photo installation in the hallway outside of our classrooms that shows a diverse set of ARC students doing STEM-related activities in the field and in the classroom.  This is intended to make the space more welcoming and to showcase the diversity of STEM students at ARC so that everyone feels like they belong.

Our department also offers a dedicated in-person section of Conceptual Physics (PHYS 310) in partnership with the UNITE Center, with enrollment coordinated through the Center as part of a structured cohort model.  As a general education course, PHYS 310 serves a diverse population of students, many of whom are completing a GE science requirement rather than pursuing a STEM major.  The cohort structure fosters a supportive learning environment that promotes belonging, engagement, and academic confidence in scientific and quantitative reasoning. Within this setting, students often discover that success in science is attainable with the right support, structure, and instructional approach, helping to reshape prior perceptions about their ability to learn scientific material.  That section of PHYS 310 has demonstrated strong outcomes, with an 84% success rate and no disproportionate impact identified among student groups, indicating that the model effectively supports achievement across populations.

We will continue to offer the Conceptual Physics learning community class and may expand to offer an Astronomy GE class in that format as well.

We will continue to use zero-cost textbooks in classes whenever possible.

We will continue using the equity advancing actions listed above, and explore other options for eliminating DI in our classes.

We need help determining why African American students are not doing as well as we would like in many of our classes, along with ideas for improving their success rates.  Frankly, we had hoped that the changes we’ve made so far would have had more impact on DI than they have.

We need access to high-quality OER/ZTC materials for our GE courses (conceptual physics and astronomy) in the hope that it would help students near or below the poverty level pass those classes at a higher rate.

The dedicated PHYS 310 section offered in partnership with the UNITE Center has successfully eliminated disproportionate impact (DI). Sustaining these outcomes requires continued support from the administration and area dean to preserve the cohort structure, enrollment coordination, and instructional resources that make this section possible. Ongoing institutional commitment will not only maintain the effectiveness of this model in promoting student achievement, but also position the department to explore expansion of this approach to other courses where similar gains in student success may be achieved.

The pandemic closure of schools in 2020-21, coupled with recent legislation that drastically changed math placement and eliminated basic skills math courses, has resulted in students having much poorer math preparation on average than before the pandemic.  This is a significant challenge since our trigonometry-based physics courses (PHYS 350/360) and calculus-based physics courses (PHYS 410/421/431) are math-intensive.  We don’t have time to teach both math and physics, so students with weak math skills struggle to complete those classes successfully. 

Our General Physics series (PHYS 350/360) has seen the greatest impact from changes in math placement.  The current placement model allows almost everyone to enroll in PHYS 350/360 regardless of their level of math preparation, with the undesirable outcome that students without the requisite skills in algebra and trigonometry are failing those courses.  We are considering creating one or more physics support courses to address this issue.  We would appreciate institutional support in finding ways to encourage students to have the proper level of math preparation prior to taking the PHYS 350/360 series.