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 (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).

On the Road to Becoming a Successful STEM Student - click here for a pdf brochure.

Several faculty have also been involved with teacher training programs through the Teacher Education Resource Center (TERC) and Center for Academic Resource Development (CARD).

Overview of Course Offerings

CHEMISTRY (CHM) - first two years of courses in general and organic chemistry needed for transfer to pre-professional programs and the chemistry courses required for a B.S. degree in nursing.
              Online:  CHM 2010 Organic I        CHM 2020 Organic II

ENGINEERING (EGR) - introductory engineering, statics, dynamics, materials, thermodynamics, circuit analysis.  See our Engineering Program website and printable pdf brochure for more information.

PHYSICS (PHY) - algebra-based introductory physics for pre-professional programs, calculus-based physics for engineering, and technical physics for engineering technology and radiography.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE (PSC)- astronomy, geology, oceanography, chemistry and physics for allied health, and two courses for  K-8 teachers on physical science concepts and Earth/space science concepts.     Online:    PSC 1050 Physical Geology

A FULL description of individual courses can be found through the College Catalog. Department offerings can be located under chemistry (CHM), engineering (EGR), physics (PHY), and physical sciences (PSC) (astronomy, geology, oceanography...).
 

For questions or comments contact Scott Sinex (located in Chesapeake Hall room 100)

 

RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS that cost you nothing but will help you!

 

 

Printable Graph Paper - click here    (For color printers, may may want to set to black and white)

 

Software Applications (click on the icons below to download)
		Word, Excel, PowerPoint Viewers	ISEE Player - Runs STELLA models

     

Data Handling and Analysis instructions for three items used in science and math classes. These are step-by-step procedures for graphing and analysis of data (download pdf files/Adobe Reader needed):
TI-82/83/83+ graphing calculators	Excel (2003) Excel 2007 Quick Guide Dealing with Data in Excel 2010	Graphical Analysis for Windows (software loaded in CH-309)

 

ChemSketch

ChemSketch: A Guide to Drawing Chemical Structures

 

A Student's Guide to Spartan (software available in open computer labs)

 

Instructions for using Chime:    Student Guide - This is a web-based tutorial in html and requires Chime to be installed on your computer.  Three Chime interactive activities are given below.
Molecular Geometry and VSEPR:  Ideal Structures	Molecular Geometry:  When Lone Pair Electrons Rule	Looking at Molecular Polarity

 

RasMol - a free standing application  similar to Chime - fits on 3.5 inch disk (472 kB)
	Quick Guide to RasMol	A zipped folder of structures

 

Scientific Data:  What do I do with it? and What is it telling me? This is introductory activity to learn how to handle data.
pdf document of activity	Excel file of data	STELLA model	all three zipped for home downloads - need WinZip to unzip

 

Instructions for using PowerPoint to produce a dynamic presentation - Click here (pdf) Big file (5 MB), slow to download - many screen captures (will print better than viewed on screen) PowerPoint 2007 Quick Guide - Click here (pdf)

Creating Chime Web Pages in FrontPage - Click here (pdf)

 

with writing and researching or need tutoring
Quick Research Library Tutorial: An Information Literacy Tool	Tutoring, Writing, and Grammar Centers

 

MathType

MathType - An Equation Editor for Engineering, Mathematics, and Science

EXPLORING YOUR FUTURE:  CAREERS IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Geosciences      American Geophysical Union Career Information     

Chemistry           American Chemical Society Career Center         Howard University
                             University of Maryland at College Park        University of Maryland Baltimore County

Physics           University of Maryland Baltimore County

Engineering        University of Maryland at College Park         Catholic University
                                University of Maryland Baltimore County         Morgan State University

Teacher Preparation            Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation

Information for pre-med students can be found at the Medical Student Resource Guide.

Will there be jobs available? See the US Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook to find out.                                                                                                      

 

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