Undergraduate Assessment
The assessment plan for the NREM Bachelor’s of Science degree includes two overall goals for the program, with a total five student learning outcomes.
Goal A - NREM students will develop the abilities to contribute as responsible and productive professionals in natural resources and environmental management careers.
- Students will develop positive personal and work-related skills through contact and interaction with role models, class (individual and team) projects, and participation in extracurricular activities.
- Students will demonstrate effective written and oral communication skills through technical reports and class presentations in each of the 300-400 level core NREM courses.
- Students will broaden their social perspectives through exposure to diverse culture and thinking in course work, service projects, and departmental or college seminars.
Goal B - NREM students will have a broad understanding of the environmental sciences and be able to apply scientific methods in managing natural resource systems and solving environmental problems.
- Students will be able to explain the ecological processes and relationships that determine given environmental conditions in core course assignments.
- Students will demonstrate technical competencies in natural resource management, develop and implement solutions to real-world problems in integrative core course projects and extracurricular/service-learning activities.
NREM uses varied quantitative indicators to measure student performance in meeting above program goals:
- grades in introductory science courses
- scores on internship term paper and final presentation
- employer ratings of intern work performance and job-related personal skills
- scores on capstone final paper and oral presentation
- responses to selected questions from the college’s exit survey of graduating students.
Additional qualitative information is assessed including employer comments about student interns and external reviews of capstone oral presentations.
For quantitative assessment, NREM has set a target of 75% average achievement for each student learning outcome. The latest results are shown in the table below.
