Instructional Planning Yearly Update
Department ____Biology________
Date: December 5, 2013; Revised May 16, 2014
Division _______NAS__________________
Goals and Recommendations from Program Plan
List the top five Goals and Recommendations from the last Program Plan and indicate whether they have been met?
Goals / Recommendations from six-year plan In progress
Goal Met
Comments
(identify source
of funding)
1. Replace lab technician
2. Replace contract faculty
3. Increase equipment budget for maintenance
and replacement
4. Maintain current supply budget
5. Acquire additional space in 600 building
In spring 2012, this position was permanently eliminated. We
No
No
currently have two 100% technicians, down from two 100%
and one 80% positions in 2011.
We currently have a full time faculty of seven, down from
No
Cost: $80,000 No
per year eight. We have not yet replaced Tom Sourisseau's retirement.
A. Faculty
A. Grant funding was used to purchase a replacement
Yes, but not Grants
incubator. B. We will be getting a replacement set of 16
ongoing
B. IT
student laptops that will be shared by all of our courses in three
different locations.
Yes
Yes
Our supply budget has not been subject to any reductions.
The Chemistry remodel will be completed for Spring, 2014
No
No
classes. With the new lecture space now available, we hope to
be able to convert room 615 from a lecture hall to a lab
classroom.
New Goals and Recommendations
List any new goals and recommendations identified by the department
Goal/Recommendation
Cost
Explanation/Evidence of Need
Repair/redesign of cadaver storage facility
Unknown
Chemical fumes from the cadaver storage room and anatomy
and ventilation system:
classroom vent into faculty offices and nearby classrooms. The
1) Stop fumes from venting into offices and
ventilation problem is complicated by severe condensation and mold
other classrooms.
contamination problems. The condensation problem can be solved if
2) Mold remediation.
the temperature of the cadaver storage room is raised to 68ºF, but the
temperature cannot be raised until the mold contamination has been
remediated. Mold has encroached under the stainless steel paneling
and vinyl flooring as well as into the ventilation system itself. The
paneling and flooring need to be replaced with paint and the
ventilation ducts and fans will need to be decontaminated.
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Restore lost TUs and expand course offerings
1) $11,812 for 0.25
additional TU for
27 sections of BIO
201
2) $7000 for BIO
21 (Field Biology)
3) $5250 for BIO
31 (Animal
Behavior)
1) We would like to restore 2 hours of in-class time to our BIO 201
microscope course. In 2011, this was decreased from 8 hours to 4
hours, which has proven to be an insufficient amount of time for
students to acquire the necessary skills, evidenced by the degradation
in the condition of our microscopes. 2) The number of different
courses offered by our department has dropped from 19 to 10 since
our Program Plan was last written in 2009. In contrast, West Valley
College had 19 different Biology courses and Foothill College had 14
different Biology courses in their Spring 2014 schedules. This spring,
we were forced to inactivate 9 course offerings due to a lack of SLO
assessment data because it has been so long since we had the TUs to
offer these courses.
SLO Assessment Progress: In a sentence or two, describe where your department should be on the Revolving Wheel of Assessment (what
assessment you should have done in the last year) and what was actually done. If not every thing was completed, explain why.
We have completed our SLO cycle with the assessment of BIO 1B (see attached assessment forms).
Fill out the Assessment Results section below.
SLO Assessment Results: List SLO assessments, dialogues, and priorities identified as a result of your assessment below. Attach
Departmental Assessment Analysis Forms completed in the last two semesters.
Core Competency, Course
SLO, or CTE Program SLO
Assessed. Example: all course
SLOs for English 1A, 1B and 2
Course SLO Assessment for
BIO 1B
Date of meeting where
analysis / dialogue took
place. Example: Department
Meeting 8/27/10
Department meeting,
11/1/13
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Priorities identified for program as a result of assessment. Example:
Develop strategies for teaching research and documentation skills; share
rubrics for research papers; provide more instructional support outside of
class.
Discussed an assignment from BIO 1B designed to help students understand
the both unifying and divergent relationships between animals. Suggestions
for revisions to the assignment were offered.