1. Geology at NOVA’s
Annandale Campus
• NOVA’s Annandale Campus
– Annandale serves over 20,000 students, it is the largest campus in the NOVA
system.
• Geology Department
– Geology is under the division of Math, Science and Engineering.
• Faculty
– Geology has 3 full time faculty (on 5-year renewable contracts), and 4 adjunct
faculty.
• Students
– Most students take geology to fulfill general education requirements.
– There are no officially declared geology ‘majors.’
• Courses
– Most geology courses are 4-credit lab courses, these includes Physical Geology,
Historical Geology, Oceanography and Minerology. Physical Geology and
Historical Geology have the largest enrollment.

2. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
White Black/African
American
Hispanic/Latino Asian American
Indian/Alaska
Native
Native
Hawaiian/Other
Pac. Islander
Not Specified
Annandale Geology 105 Geology 106
Geology vs Total Annandale Enrollment
Geology 105 (Physical) and 106 (Historical) vs Annandale Campus
Percentage
Data from 2016-2017

3. Lessons Learned from Course and
Demographic Data
• There is lower enrollment of Hispanic/Latino, Asian and
African American students in GOL courses compared to
Annandale campus enrollment
– Action (1): Address the lack of understanding about what
Geology is and how a Geology concentration can lead to
lucrative career paths. Communicate with academic advisors
and continue to participate in career services events.
– Action (2): Identify active student groups (including Hispanic
student union, Chinese student scholars, Black student alliance
and Ethiopian and Eritrean Student union) and offer to speak or
make short presentation at one of their meetings/events.

4. Total Enrollment Demographics by Subject
vs Annandale Enrollment
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
White Black/African
American
Hispanic/Latino Asian American
Indian/Alaska
Native
Native
Hawaiian/Other
Pac. Islander
Not Specified
Annandale Geology Physics Chemistry Biology
Data from 2016-2017
Percentage

5. Total Enrollment Demographics by Subject
vs Annandale Enrollment
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
White Black/African
American
Hispanic/Latino Asian American
Indian/Alaska
Native
Native
Hawaiian/Other
Pac. Islander
Not Specified
Annandale Geology Physics Chemistry Biology
Students White
Black/African
American
Hispanic/Latino Asian
American
Indian/Alaska Native
Native
Hawaiian/Other Pac.
Islander
Not Specified
Annandale 20931 36% 11% 23% 24% <1% <1% <1%
Geology 1820 49% 12% 19% 14% <1% 1% <1%
Physics 3213 42% 12% 17% 23% <1% <1% <1%
Chemistry 5093 37% 16% 19% 21% <1% <1% <1%
Biology 13199 35% 17% 24% 17% <1% <1% <1%
Data from 2016-2017
Percentage

6. Lessons Learned from Course and
Demographic Data
• Other science departments are doing a better job than us!
– Action: Contact other science departments (especially
Chemistry and Biology) and find out what they are doing better
than us that we might learn from.
• Is the data representative of our class makeup?
– Our data is skewed due to the inclusion of middle-eastern
students under the ‘white’ student count.
– Does not reflect the demographic make-up of our classes nor
the overall make-up of the Annandale campus.

7. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Annandale Geology Physics Chemistry Biology
Male Female
Gender: Geology Enrollment vs Physics,
Chemistry and Biology
Geology appears to have a
fairly even (and
representative) split of
male/female
There is actually a slightly
higher percentage of female
students to male students in
Geology compared to
Annandale enrollment.
However, this may not
translate to equal class/lab
participation.
Action: continue to implement
inclusive teaching methods
Percentage
Data from 2016-2017

8. Success Rate by Course and
Demographics
Success rate (pass) by course and demographics
Hispanic/Latino
Black or African
American White
American Indian
or Alaska Native Asian
Native Hawaiian or
Other Pacific
Islander
Two or More
Races All Students All
Historical Geology 88% 88% 93% N/A 100% 100% N/A 81 93%
Physical Geology 82% 77% 89% N/A 89% 100% N/A 89 87%
20 or more
students
between 10 and 20
students
Less than 10
Data from 2016-2017

9. Lessons Learned from Course and
Demographic Data
• It is difficult to evaluate any trends in student success
without more data
– Action (1): Add all team members data
– Action (2): Do a better job tracking Geology population and
student success. Consider department wide surveys to
better track student population and success
• Evaluate success as C or rather than pass or fail
– Action: When we do compile more demographic data it
may be more valuable to look at this data as pass/fail and
C or higher to look for any additional trends.
• Success rate of online students markedly lower