Assessment

Mission Statement

In fulfilling its part of the mission of the University, the Physics Department strives for excellence in 3 areas.

  • Research: The Department creates and disseminates new scientific knowledge.
  • Teaching: The Department offers courses in physics at the graduate and undergraduate levels that will help prepare students for professional careers in science, engineering, education, technology, and health care.
  • Service: The Department offers courses that will help promote public awareness and understanding of science.  The Department participates in outreach programs to the general public.

Physics Programs

The Physics Department's Mission Statement is implemented via (1) its undergraduate bachelor's programs, (2) its graduate programs, and (3) its teaching programs.

The bachelor's programs come in four versions: a BA degree and a BS degree, with the latter allowing for an optional applied or a professional emphasis.

The teaching programs come in two versions: a BS in Physics Teaching and a BS in Physical Science Composite Teaching.

There are two graduate programs leading to MS and PhD degrees.

The 4 types of bachelors programs have a common core of required and elective coursework components, and a research component. Likewise, the teaching programs have a common core of physics courses and teaching experiences. The graduate programs also have a common core of required and elective coursework components, and a research component. For assessment purposes we therefore have created three plans to treat the bachelor's programs, teaching programs, and graduate programs, respectively.

BS & BA, Applied and Professional Emphasis
A physics degree represents more than a collection of courses. It is a coherent set of competencies and outcomes which emerge from a student's experience with the degree program. Using a process known as "tuning", physics departments throughout the state of Utah have determined a set of learning objectives for the BA/BS degrees (also with Applied or Professional Emphasis) to which we all aspire.
BS & BA Assessment

Teaching Degrees
The physics teaching degrees are the BS in Physics Teaching and the BS in Composite Teaching-Physical Science. The two degrees require a relatively small number of physics courses in conjunction with the requirements from the Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP). The principal goal of our program relative to these degrees is to give students a scientific background adequate to prepare them to teach science.
Teaching Assessment

Graduate Program
The purpose of the Physics graduate program is to equip students with advanced fundamentals, advanced training, and expert-level knowledge of specific areas of physics via coursework and research activities, thus preparing them for careers in government, academia, or industry, as well as for entry into a subsequent graduate program, for teaching at all levels, and for any careers utilizing pure and applied scientific research.
Graduate Assessment