Fun facts for physics-phobes Fun facts for physics-phobes (July 29, 2005)

Foothill College professor makes science accessible

By Katie Vaughn

If the thought of having to learn about physics makes you break out in a cold sweat, Andrew Fraknoi wants you in his class. The Foothill College professor has a knack for making the subject understandable, applicable and even fun for the least scientific of minds.

"My job is to teach non-science majors who have to take a science class and are deathly afraid of it," Fraknoi said.

A Foothill astronomy professor for 14 years, Fraknoi teaches "Physics for Poets," a five-unit, non-technical course that combines science with the humanities by incorporating novels, poetry, science fiction, music and art into the curriculum. The course also covers some of the most fascinating physics phenomena, including many topics Albert Einstein famously studied. The class so heavily deals with the famous scientist's work that is it often called "Everything You've Wanted to Know About Einstein's Work But Were Afraid to Ask."

Because of his unusual teaching tactics, Fraknoi recently earned the 2005 Innovation of the Year award, given by the League for Innovation in the Community College, a group that encourages out-of-the-box teaching in the country's roughly 1,000 community colleges.

The inspiration for "Physics for Poets" came from the astronomy courses Fraknoi regularly taught. Topics like black holes would come up in his lectures, but he wasn't able to devote class time to covering them in depth. After several students asked if he would ever offer a class on such subjects, he decided to do just that.

But Fraknoi also regarded the new class as an opportunity to move into an interdisciplinary realm. He wanted to show his students that physics is not limited to the world of scientists, but is found everywhere in culture.

"This has been a passion of mine, seeing how physics shows up in music, fiction and philosophy," Fraknoi said. "You can see the creative person has absorbed something about physics and is trying to express this in his work."

To illustrate this, Fraknoi shows his class works of art that convey elements of physics, reads excerpts of science fiction novels, and has the class read novels that play off of Einstein's ideas. He also plays music in his class, including the Philip Glass opera "Einstein on the Beach," which deals with nuclear war.

In addition to infusing his class with art, scientific oddities and lots of humor, Fraknoi seeks to make physics a subject feasible for anyone regardless of math or science experience or aptitude. He said the science is fundamental to understanding the way the world works.

"That science is 'gettable' is one of my main aims," he said. "Physics is the science that underlies the other sciences. We're looking at the traffic rules, the basic constitution of the universe"

The class -- held during the evenings of Foothill's spring quarter -- has become the most popular in the physics department, an accomplishment Fraknoi says is astounding "given my bad jokes." Enrollment ranges from 45 to 80 students each year, and while some are the traditional college sort, many are retirees, high school students and a few middle schoolers who have begged their way into the class.

Due to the success of "Physics for Poets," Fraknoi has created a new, one-credit course for the fall called "Astronomy for Pleasure," with the hope that local residents will take advantage of their community college and learn more about science.

In addition to teaching at Foothill, Fraknoi co-authors astronomy textbooks, appears as a guest on local and national radio and television programs and has helped make astronomy games for families. He also works with teachers, helping them to better convey scientific topics to their students.

In honor of this work, his colleagues nominated him as the namesake of an asteroid. The professor humbly calls Asteroid Fraknoi "a very small and very boring piece of rock."

Ultimately, Fraknoi said, his pursuits inside and out of the classroom are meant to inform others about astronomy and physics and show their relevance to anyone's life.

"Physics is not something of interest only to geeks in white lab coats," he said.

E-mail Katie Vaughn at kvaughn@mv-voice.com

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