Grades: College of Science

By: Juan López

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - 12:42 AM

The College of Science offers the following undergraduate degrees: biology, chemistry, geography, geological engineering, geology, mathematics and statistics, mining engineering and physics.

Click here to read the entire special report on grades.

The number of non-science majors taking science courses greatly affects the College of Science’s undergraduate grade distribution, professors in the college said.

“We have a lot of students in here who take these courses because they have to,” said physics professor Ronald Phaneuf, who has taught at the University of Nevada, Reno for 17 years.

“With this, you get some who don’t want to be in there, so their grades suffer, so they bring down the grade distribution. Whereas in colleges like education and engineering, most of the students in there are also majors of that school.”

Sixth-year physics professor Melodi Rodrigue said having sciences as required courses skewed the grade distribution and added that it had to do with the quality of students.

“In entry-level, required classes, we have a lot of freshmen and people who are just getting acclimated to college,” said Rodrigue, who teaches upper-level astrophysics as well as entry-level classes. “And there’s always a few in the bunch who don’t know what it takes to be successful in a college class so they don’t put forth the effort.”

While they all agreed that the numbers were distorted, Rodrigue said if she could “just teach and not have to grade, I would love that.”

Chemistry professor and department chair Vincent Catalano begged to differ.

“When I was a student, that was the only institutional mark left from you taking that class so I always took them very seriously,” he said. “Think about it this way: Do you play sports? … Do you keep score? People aren’t out there just to play the game. It’s the same in school.”

Juan López can be reached at jlopez@nevadasagebrush.com.