Physical Sciences and Engineering Department
The Department of Physical Sciences and Engineering at Prince George's Community College is housed on the third floor of Chesapeake Hall. The Department provides transfer courses in chemistry, engineering, and physics, and elective courses in Earth/Space Sciences (engineering, and physics, and elective courses in Earth/Space Sciences (engineering, and physics, and elective courses in Earth/Space Sciences (Science Opportunities brochure). A number of the Department courses support programs in other areas, such as Allied Health or Engineering Technology.
At present, eleven full-time faculty members make up the Department with support from a dozen adjunct faculty. A number of full-time and adjunct faculty have received teaching awards. Faculty have kept professionally active by taking leave to spend time at FDA, NASA, and NIST. The Department has a strong emphasis on technology with computers and instrumentation obtained from NSF and DOD grants. The Department is equipped with a GC/MS, FT-IR, UV-VIS, GC, HPLC, AA, and computers with interfaces and numerous probes. Use of graphing calculators and calculator-based laboratories (CBL) is encouraged to strengthen and support use in our Mathematics Department.
In an effort to meet National Science Education Standards and the NSF's Report Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology, the Department has converted a number of courses to a guided-inquiry mode of instruction. Almost all of the Department laboratory courses have in-house published laboratory manuals. Faculty have customized the laboratory activities to meet the needs of our students and utilize our technology. Since the manuals are in-house published, they are reasonably priced and are easily and constantly updated by faculty. A number of presentations at national conferences on our programs have been given by faculty.
The Physical Sciences and Engineering Department is part of the Division of Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Several faculty have also been involved with teacher training programs through the Teacher Education Resource Center (TERC) and Center for Academic Resource Development (CARD).