1992_03 Insight March 1992

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Science: from page seven
of majors In the math and sciences
has been on the decline.
In fact although American colleges granted more than 6,000
Ph.D.'s in engineering in 1991, it b
not an indicator that American students have become more interested
in math and science.
Walter Loscutoff, chair of the
mechanical engineering department said that 58 percent of those
6,000 students who received
Ph.D.'s in engineering last year
were foreign nationals.
Cusick said that getting college
students interested in science and
math has to start at the elementary
and high school levels or else it may
be too late.
Cathleen Loving, associate professor in the biology department
said that there have been a number
of efforts at the national and state
level to improve the teaching of science and math among elementary
and high school students.
One of these national efforts is
the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, Project
2061.
Loving said that the goal of Project
2061, which is named for the year
when Halte/s Comet will again'
swoop past the earth, b to ensure that
by the year 2061 "all l^year-olds will
become scientifically literate."
She said that in an effort to improve students' scientific literacy,
money has been put aside by the
California Legislature to assess elementary and high school students'
science and math knowledge in the
form of the California Assessment
Program, a switch from standardized testing.
"They are performance-based
questions," Loving said. "Students
across California will be asked to
come up wi th their own solutions to
the problems."
Loving said that this kind of test
ing method b better than the traditional Scantron tests where students
merely fill inbubblesand their basic
knowledge of math and science
principles is not truly assessed.
The effort to improve elementary and high school students' sd-
entific literacy has not gone Ignored
by the federal govemment either.
President George Bush, in hb
"America 2000" educational goab
agenda, said that his target b to
make American high school students No. 1 in math and science by
the year 2000.
Ziegler said that Bush's goal of
making the student population
scientifically literate by the year
2000 is an admirable idea, but it
must be backed up by money and
a solid outline describing how this
objective will be achieved.
"Words are admirable, but just
saying something will not make it
happen. Science education b very
expensive," he said.
Ziegler pointed out that the need
to make Americans literate in math
and science dates back to the 1950s
and the Russian Sputnik space program
The program involved Russia's
effort to get die first satellite into
space.
In response to the Sputnik effort,
the United States allocated billions
of dollars and vast resources to ensure that Americans were able to
compete with the Russians in science and math and to help ensure
that America would beat Russia to
the moon
However, he said that nothing b
being done currently to ensure that
college students are scientifically
literate.
"The science laboratories at the
university have had a zero equipment budget for two years. That
does not help scientific literacy," he
said. O
CSUF holds top grades
By Yngve Solhaug
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C"- SUF students outclass other CSU students, accord ing to a
•-grade report released by the Institutional Research Center.
CSUF students ranked third in an academic grade report compiled by the California State University system CSUF students, on
the average, received a grade of 2.97 per dass in 1990. The average
grade awarded per class throughout the rest of the CSU system was
2.77 in 1990.
The trend has been like this throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The
numbers have been stable, with the highest average at 3.00 in 1970.
The report from the Institutional Research Center shows further
that nearly one third of the students at CSUF received A's last
semester.
These figures have been fairly constant over the past twenty
years. Compared to other universities in California, CSUF b above
average, according to the Institutional Research Center.
Women attending CSUF averaged a 2.83 GPA during spring
1990. Ontheotherhand, men at CSUFaveragedonly 2.61 GPA.The
Institutional Research Center claims that the academic variation
between the sexes started in the 1970s.
Jeannine Raymond, at Institutional Research, said that women are
dominating the GPA scores in all the untversitfes thioughout California.
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Average grades awarded
. 1           per class for 1990
The grade report also showed that 83 percent of the students at
CSUF in 1990 received a tetter grade. Seventeen percent opted for
credit/no credit that same year. In contrast, in 1987 the percentage of
credit/no credit students was 13 percent The number of credit/no
credit students since 1987 has slowly risen. O
Spring grades don't reflect spring fever
By Tim Haddock	
StaffWriter
With spring on the horizon, choosing
between spending a night out or
studying at home might find many college
students spending more time out and less
time studying.
If CSUF students tend to be more social in the spring, their semester grades
don't reflect it.
For the last five semesters, grade distribution has been fairly consistent when
comparing fall semester grades to spring
semester grades, according to Office of
Instructional Resource reports.
Roughly 30 percent of CSUF's student
population received A's in the 1991 fall
semester. However, in the 1991 spring
semester, the percentage of students receiving A's was slightly lower, at around
29 percent.
Some instructors, such as Sidney
Chang, an American history professor,
said he enforces strict attendance policies for all his classes, which helps keep
his grade distribution consistent.
"All my students sign in before class,"
Chang said. "There are no problems with
my students [missing classes]."
Some students said they prefer the
warm weather to study in.
Three liberal studies majors, who were
sitting by the fountain one early afternoon last week, agreed they do more
studying when it's warm outside.
Junior Rebecca Harris said, "You can
study while you're laying out."
"The grades I get in the fall make me
work harder in the spring," Sophomore
Marcia Avila said.
"I never want to study in the fall because it's too cold," junior Michelle
Sandoval said.
Other students, such as criminology
major Denise Stebles, said they study
more when it's cold outside.
"When it's warm, you want to be outside," Stebles said. "I study more in the
winter time."
Linnea Alexander, an instructor in the
English department, said she thought
that while students might want to spend
more time out of class when it's warm,
about the same number spend time at
home sick when it's cold.
"It balances out," Alexander said.   3
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MARCH 13
Application
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MARCH 21
Preliminary
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MARCH 31
Packing HouseTour/
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APRIL 4
Rehearsal/
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APRIL 11
Final Rehearsal/
1992
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APPLICATIONS MUST BE POSTMARKED
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.....  .  .