Chemistry Faculty Information

Course Outline of Record (COR) Information

Click the Chemistry (or Physical Science) Course Number to see the COR (Course Outline of Record) information for that particular course. All COR's, are available for faculty and staff perusal, but previously approved COR's will continue to be in effect until the beginning of Fall Semester 2011. Use the data in these COR's for your course syllabi since they contain information about required lecture and lab content as well as SLO's (Student Learning Outcomes) for each course.

Student Academic Integrity and Code of Conduct Information

 

 

 

Useful Course Expectation Information

Absences and Substitute Instructors

Occasionally, we all get sick or have some emergency that prevents us from teaching on a particular day. Of course, if there are too many absences or class cancellations, for lecture or for lab, it becomes difficult to meet the requirements of the COR, students are not meeting the required amount of time in lecture and/or lab, and we are jeopardizing our students' preparation for the next level. The following information has been provided by our Dean from the Office of Instruction relating to Associate Faculty absences and whether substitute instructors are to be used.

  1. Normally we would let one class meeting pass, but we need to watch the instructional hours closely.
  2. For late-start classes, which have fewer meeting times during the semester, getting a substitute would likely be necessary.
  3. Associate Faculty do NOT find substitutes (the Office of Instruction tells Associate Faculty this during orientation).
  4. Full-time discipline faculty recommend substitutes to their Dean and the Office of Instruction employs them. It is easier when a substitute is someone already teaching for MiraCosta College. Our Dean has indicated that they have had cases when an unqualified person was asked to cover the class. For liability and accreditation purposes, we need to guard against this. While an Associate Faculty member may recommend someone, it is the full-time lead instructor's responsibility (or Department Chair) to find the substitute and ensure they are qualified to teach that subject. This is why there is compensation.
  5. The Associate Faculty member must report to the faculty secretary her/his absence.
  6. Online substitution was NEVER designed to be a substitute for an absence, it is being abused in an illegal way when that happens. This is not an option.

As an Associate Faculty member, if you have an absence you must contact your Associate Faculty secretary (Kathy Thiele or Diana Ferris on the Oceanside campus, Ann Quebedeaux or Becky Kassab at the San Elijo campus) prior to your absence so that your compensated hours can be recorded accurately because you can get paid for sick leave. In addition, contacting the Associate Faculty office prior to your absence allows them to post a notification on all necessary classroom doors (lecture and lab). It is your responsibility to ensure that the secretary follows through on your requests. If you decide to take the class to a computer classroom, or the library, or, you have a scheduled field trip, please be certain to also contact your secretary and have her post a notification on all classroom doors (lecture and lab). This serves at least two purposes: students who arrive late (or forgot there was a field trip scheduled) know where the class is, and other faculty/administrators know that you have your class covered and didn't "just fail to show up." The above procedures help to fulfill your contractual obligations to MiraCosta College.

What to do when the students finish an experiment early?

For example, if an experiment has 3 days scheduled and your students complete it in 2 days, it is not acceptable to cancel the last lab period and not meet. Instead, you can have them work on the various parts of the lab report, or do some other lab-related activity/exercise. If the students finish an experiment early on the last scheduled day and most of the lab period remains, there are many options that you could offer them: help with calculations, a related activity or exercise, individual help with homework problems, etc. If there are only minutes remaining, it would be acceptable to excuse those who do not want individual help. Please remember that the instructor must remain in the classroom until the end of the period (5 minutes might be an acceptable "early" leaving time on occasion, but for the majority of the lab periods, no more than that).