Development, Implementation and Assessment of a new degree program in AOSS
Academic Year:
2014 - 2015 (June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015)
Funding Requested:
$10,000.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
Overview of the Project:
The goal of the Whitaker Grant funding is to help develop, implement and assess the new AOSS curriculum. The goal and motivation of the new curriculum are to prepare students well for graduate studies or careers in space science, space engineering, atmospheric and climate science, and climate impact engineering. The two engineering tracks are designed to better connect to the mission of the College to prepare engineers. Specifically, the grant will support all of the faculty that teach undergraduates in space science and engineering and the atmospheric and climate faculty involved with the curriculum revision efforts to jointly develop several new courses and revise several existing courses that play significant parts of the new undergraduate curriculum. The curriculum revision was begun in the 2013/2014 AY and continues this year. The new curriculum calls for significant modifications of our lab courses and the creation of a new track focused on Space Engineering. In addition to the development of new course descriptions, outlines and syllabus, the Whitaker grant will support the implementation and assessment of the new courses during AY 2015/2016. We will work with CRLT-in-Engineering on designing an assessment protocol and use modified Mid-Term Evaluations during and at the end of the course to gather data on the effectiveness of the lab and course designs. The framework developed will be used to follow a cohort through the new curriculum and will be used for both formative assessment as well as play a significant role in our ABET accreditation efforts.