Zoology
- Mission Statement
The Department of Zoology provides accessible, engaging, and relevant educational opportunities, resources, and expertise in all facets of animal biology and associated life sciences.
Values:
- Encourage freedom of exploration in the life sciences.
- Serve diverse students at varied levels of engagement in animal biology including general education courses, support courses for non-zoology degrees across campus, and a diversity of courses relevant for careers in the sciences.
- Involve students in active research and community service.
- Through research and service, contribute new knowledge within fields of zoology and related life sciences.
- Through engaging coursework and independent instruction, confer skills in problem solving, critical thinking, communication, and disciplinary methods, which facilitate productive futures for Zoology students and, especially, Zoology graduates.
- Strengthen life-science education and practice across Weber State University and throughout associated communities along the northern Wasatch Front metropolitan areas of Weber, Davis, and surrounding counties.
- Student Learning Outcomes
- Certificate (Not Applicable)
- Associate Degree (Not Applicable)
- Bachelor of Science
Students completing the Bachelor of Science in Zoology will be able to demonstrate knowledge in the following outcomes:
Core Concepts:
- Evolution: The diversity of life is the result of mutation, adaptation, and selection pressure over time.
- Cellular Organization: All living things consist of one or more cells, the units of structure, function, and reproduction.
- Genetics: All living things share basic genetic mechanisms, which are responsible for the organization and continuity of life.
- Ecosystems: All organisms are interconnected, interacting with each other as well as with their dynamic environment.
- Structure and Function: There is a relationship between molecular and organismal structure and function.
- System Regulation: Biological systems are governed by chemical transformations and homeostasis.
Core Competencies:
- The Process of Science: Students will use observational strategies to test hypotheses and critically evaluate experimental evidence.
- Quantitative Reasoning: Students will represent diverse experimental data sets graphically and apply statistical methods to them.
- Communication: Students will explain scientific concepts to different audiences and work collaboratively to explore biological problems.
- Science and Society: Students will develop biological applications to evaluate and address societal problems.
- Certificate (Not Applicable)
- Curriculum Grid
- Program and Contact Information
The Department of Zoology serves diverse roles at WSU. Courses in the department include those that meet the life-science general-education requirement, those that are service courses for students pursuing careers in medicine, and courses for science majors, with emphasis on zoology majors. All courses are designed and delivered in a manner consistent with the Zoology mission statement and measurable learning outcomes. Thus, courses are diverse and emphasize both important zoological content and practical skills relevant to biological fields. Coursework serves as the formal venue for zoological study, but many students also engage in independent study. These students typically work with faculty members in research projects. Many such projects produce professional-quality results and give students substantial education and experience. Faculty members are well qualified and students overall indicate teaching in the department is better or much better than average. Advising in the department is organized by potential career path, so very specialized and relevant career advice is available to the large majority of zoology majors and pre-professional students. Faculty members are active in research and community service, which enriches their teaching and, especially, independent work with students.
Contact Information:
Dr. Ron MeyersWeber State University2505 University Circle
Ogden, UT 84408
Tracy Hall, Rm 412
(801) 626-6170 - Assessment Plan
Collection and Analysis of Data:
- Faculty of the Department of Zoology will be required to provide assessment data from courses taught. Data for all departmental courses will be analyzed
and reported by the Chair of Zoology. As needed an Assessment Committee will be formed of
tenure-track faculty to oversee and implement the department’s assessment plan.General Education Life Science (LS) courses:
- Zoology’s Gen Ed courses will be assessed using categorized multiple choice questions delivered using Chi-Tester that address either the Natural
Science or Life Science Gen Ed Learning Outcomes.
Required Courses:
- Zoology’s required courses (Zool 1110, 1120, 3200, 3300, 3450, 3600 and 3720) will be assessed using categorized multiple choice questions delivered using Chi-Tester and/or a course-specific assessment instrument or assignment that directly measures department level learning outcomes for zoology majors.
Elective Courses:
- Zoology’s elective courses (Zool 3470, 3500, 3730, 4050, 4100, 4120, 4210, 4220, 4300, 4350, 4470, 4480, 4640, 4650, 4660, 4670, and 4680) will be assessed using a course-specific assessment instrument or assignment that directly measures targeted department level learning outcomes for zoology majors as indicated in the curriculum grid.
Assessment of Graduating Majors:
- Senior Seminar (Zool 4990) serves as a capstone course for Zoology majors and is typically taken in the last year of study. As a way to assess graduating majors of the Department of Zoology students enrolled in Senior Seminar will be required to take the Collegiate Learning Assessment.
2016-2017 (data collected); report submitted January 2017:
- General Education Courses: Zool 1010, 1020, 1030
- Required Courses: Zool 1110, 1120, 3200, 3300, 3450, 3600 and 3720
- Elective Courses: As offered*
2017-2018 (data collected); report to be submitted Fall 2018:
- General Education Courses: Zool 1010, 1020, 1030
- Required Courses: Zool 1110, 1120, 3200, 3300, 3450, 3600 and 3720
- Elective Courses: As offered*
2018-2019 (data collected); report to be submitted Fall 2019:
- General Education Courses: Zool 1010, 1020, 1030
- Required Courses: Zool 1110, 1120, 3200, 3300, 3450, 3600 and 3720
- Elective Courses: As offered*
*Elective courses will be assessed as they are offered based on faculty availability.
- Assessment Report Submissions
- 2021-2022
1) Review and comment on the trend of minority students enrolling in your classes (particularly lower-division, GEN Ed) and in your
programs.
>>In the zoology department, most of our minority students are Latinx, who make up approximately 13 percent of our majors. This
has held relatively stable, and is up from 8 percent in Fall 2014. Part of this increase may be due to the actions of the Multicultural
Advancement in Science Club (MAS: https://www.weber.edu/cos/Alumni.html), which is mentored by our Dr. Jon Marshall. Dr. Marshall
and his club members visit local JHS and HS classes to talk to the students about college and careers in science. They have also
presented to Latinos-in-Action (https://latinosinaction.org/). Although the club had reduced activities during the height of the
COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Dr. Marshall is getting the club active once again. Unfortunately we do not have access to data on
minority enrollment in specific courses.
2) What support (from enrollment services, advising, first-year transition office, access & diversity, etc.) do you need to help you recruit
and retain students?
>> We have College of Science advisors (i.e., Monica Linford) as well as advising strategies in effect for our department. For example,
students need to meet with a department advisor (Dr. Christopher Hoagstrom) prior to declaring a zoology major. In these meetings,
Chris outlines the degree and advises student on which classes they need (and do not need) in order to streamline their progress
through the major. We encourage zoology majors (by word-of-mouth and by email) to make an appointment with the Department
Chair (Dr. Ron Meyers) each semester before registration in order to plan schedules and make students aware of new electives; again,
to facilitate their progress through the degree. Further, Brian Chung, our Human Anatomy class professor and coordinator of the
cadaver lab program, regularly offers in-lab tours for, as well as outreach to, local schools. This is expanding again post-COVID
lockdown, and is an excellent form of recruitment into the Pre-professional programs of the College of Science and the Department of
Zoology. We still find that HS and other Weber State advisors give incorrect recommendations (such as telling pre-professional
students to complete their A.S. degree before starting their major classes). This continues to happen and results in students taking
classes (e.g., Chemistry 1110, Micro 1113), which, although they fulfill GE requirements, do not count towards our major and
therefore are not needed; this means students are taking extra & unnecessary classes that delays their completion of the degree.
Matters would improve if students were directed to the College or Departmental advisors.
3) We have invited you to re-think your program assessment. What strategies are you considering? What support or help would you
like?
>> Our department-wide assessment strategies include a number of approaches including exam questions, rubric-graded lab reports
and assignments, and presentations. The concern is that faculty see scoring and compiling these as taking up a significant amount of
time that they feel could be used for other (teaching) endeavors. We plan to discuss this at an upcoming department meeting. A significant amount of time was spent dealing with formatting these tables in Word. Faculty use different versions on different computers and that leads to all sorts of formatting issues that take much time resolve. It would be helpful if a non-editable table could be provided so when compiling all of the faculty files the data are all consistent.
4) Finally, we are supporting our Concurrent Enrollment accreditation process. Does your program offer concurrent enrollment classes?
If so, have you been able to submit the information requested from the Concurrent Enrollment office? Staff from OIE will reach out to
you in the next few months to assist in finalizing that data submission as well as gather information for concurrent Gen Ed
assessment.
>> we do not offer any concurrent enrollment class in the Zoology Department.The full report is available for viewing.
- 2019-2020
1) First year student success is critical to WSU’s retention and graduation efforts. We are interested in finding out how departments support their first-year students. Do you have mechanisms and processes in place to identify, meet with, and support first-year students? Please provide a brief narrative focusing on your program’s support of new students:
Any first-year students taking courses in your program(s):
- Yes. First-year students are supportive in that (1) first-year classes have supplemental instructors, and students are encouraged to attend; (2) we utilize STARFISH to target students who are having difficulties; (3) all faculty in the department hold regular office hours and encourage students to visit; (4) Brian Pilcher, an Instructor in the department is a “Learning Strategist” and holds regular study skills/time management sessions is available for one-on-one meetings.
Students declared in your program(s), whether or not they are taking courses in your program(s):
- All students must meet with a zoology advisor before declaring their zoology major; they then get information on the correct sequence of classes and specific advisors to contact depending on their career interests. In addition, all declared majors receive a “welcome” e-mail at the beginning of the semester, which contains links to zoology major information such as our social media content, departmental clubs, majors’ room access, and how to subscribe to the departmental newsletter.
2) A key component of sound assessment practice is the process of ‘closing the loop’ – that is, following up on changes implemented as a response to your assessment findings, to determine the impact of those changes/innovations. It is also an aspect of assessment on which we need to improve, as suggested in our NWCCU mid-cycle report. Please describe the processes your program has in place to ‘close the loop’.
- Evaluation of our assessment data indicates that we are meeting are learning objectives. Students are meeting or exceeding the thresholds set for these classes. We further interpret this to mean that faculty are achieving their pedagogical goals and should be encouraged to keep up their good work. In those instances where the threshold was not met, the chair will meet with faculty teaching those classes and discuss ways to facilitate changes to teaching strategies that will provide better success at meeting learning outcomes. Future assessment will determine the efficacy of those pedagogical changes.
The full report is available for viewing.
- Yes. First-year students are supportive in that (1) first-year classes have supplemental instructors, and students are encouraged to attend; (2) we utilize STARFISH to target students who are having difficulties; (3) all faculty in the department hold regular office hours and encourage students to visit; (4) Brian Pilcher, an Instructor in the department is a “Learning Strategist” and holds regular study skills/time management sessions is available for one-on-one meetings.
- 2017
The Zoology Department conducted a 5 year program review with full self-study during the fall of 2017. Those results are presented in place of the Annual Assessment. Please reference those documents for information that includes data for the 2016/17 academic year.
The full report is available for viewing.
- 2016
1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
- With a new assessment plan and leaning outcomes in place, we are now initiating assessment of courses in the major. Data should be available for courses taught next year (2016-2017).
- Two additional courses, Zool 1110 and Zool 2200, have been added as life-science general-education courses and will be assessed next year (2016-2017).
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Zool 1010 is on probation because two outcomes were not assessed. Assessment for next year (2016-2017) will include all learning outcomes.
2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed.
- Assessment of Graduating Majors:
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Senior Seminar (Zool 4990) serves as a capstone course for Zoology majors and is typically taken in the last year of study. As a way to assess graduating majors of the Department of Zoology, students enrolled in Senior Seminar will be required to take the Collegiate Learning Assessment.
The full report is available for viewing.
- 2015
1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
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The department will update the assessment plan for courses within the major. Professors teaching Zool 1010 will add assessment exam questions for the problem solving and data analysis and for the metabolism and homeostasis learning outcome.
2) Are there assessment strategies within your department or program that you feel are particularly effective and/or innovative? If so, what are those strategies and what do you learn about your students by using them?
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NA
The full report is available for viewing.
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- 2014
1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?
- The Zoology faculty is perennially confident in the Zoology program because it is well designed and long-tested. The results of a single year’s outcomes cannot be viewed in isolation from previous years or decades of experience and a long-standing history of graduate success. Further, all faculty members are engaged in their courses and work each semester to update and improve course materials. Beyond this, all faculty members are actively engaged in scholarly research, which ensures they remain current in their fields of interest and excited about Zoology. That being said, evidence available for this year’s assessment is highly indicative of teaching success.
- Graduates rated their experiences in the Department highly.
- Many students were closely engaged with faculty members in zoological research, indicating that they received intensive, high-impact instruction, gained valuable hands-on experience, and were attracted to pursue research either through their coursework or through the charisma of faculty members.
- Almost all courses for majors included laboratories in which all students gained hands-on experience and had opportunities to interact with classmates and departmental faculty.
- Faculty members work continuously to improve laboratory experiences (examples above).
- Many courses also include high-impact teaching approaches in lecture sections and, in all cases, faculty continuously work to improve materials and approaches used (examples above).
- Student preparedness is indicated by the fact that 5 of 6 students applying for medical school scored above the 66th percentile and all five of these students have been admitted to medical school.
- The high grade-point average of Zoology graduates suggests preparedness, especially in light of the fact that five of these students scored well on the MCAT and have been admitted to medical school, along with others that have been admitted to dental school, pharmacy school, and graduate school or are now gainfully employed.
- Other students have made the personal decision to put off their applications for physician-assistant or medical school until 2015. Of the 27 2013-2014 graduates, only 1 (3.7%) is unemployed although looking for employment and 1 other (another 3.7%) has an unknown status.
2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
- With Department of Zoology faculty and staff and with the Dean of the College of Science.
3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?- We will continue to emphasize proactive teaching approaches that include high-impact learning experiences for students.
- We will continue to emphasize laboratories as an integral part of the Zoology curriculum because of their importance in providing ample hands-on and collaborative learning experiences for students as well as providing opportunities for more direct interactions between students and faculty.
- We will continue to pursue our respective research interests and to involve students directly in our research both to provide unparalleled learning opportunities and to maintain our currency in and enthusiasm for the discipline of Zoology.
The full report is available for viewing
- 2013
1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?
- The assessment results from this year are comparable to those from the recent past years in most ways. Major differences between the current year’s assessments and that of recent past years are indicated in the first two points below.
- The number of graduates indicates that Zoology continues to be a popular major and this number exceeds that of the previous two assessment periods. The number of Zoology graduates increased by 33% compared to the previous reporting year, 2010-2011 (and by 12.5% compared to 2009-2010). Department SCHs also increased by 5% compared to 2010-2011 (and by 19.2% compared to 2009-2010). The increase in SCHs is to due increased student enrollment in online general education and service courses, as well as in face-to-face courses like Zoology 2100 (Human Anatomy) and Zoology 2200 (Human Physiology).
- The Department of Zoology continues to provide meaningful undergraduate research experiences to significant numbers of students. Twenty-seven students were involved in research with Zoology faculty mentors. These students attended local, regional, and national meetings to present their research and some were involved in publishing research in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
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Thirty percent of graduates obtained permanent employment or internships in Zoology-related fields and 44% applied to health-care related professional programs. The remaining students are currently seeking employment in zoology-related fields (17.7%) or are employed in non-zoology-related fields (8.3%).
2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
- It will be shared with all members of the department and with the dean of the College of Science.
3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
- We will continue with the core of our current assessment plan to maintain long-term data on the measures that have been collected for many years. In addition, we will implement the two additional assessment measures mentioned above to add new kinds of data to our annual assessment.
To see the full report, select this link: Zoology 2012/13 Annual Assessment Report
- 2021-2022
- Program Review
This information is part of the cyclical program review process. Details such as mission statements, learning outcomes, etc., are updated as part of the biennial assessment reporting process, an integral component of program review.