It can be hard to get students motivated and interested in a subject, especially when it’s something complicated like physics.
I know I for one don’t remember much from science class… the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. I can name 4 elements on the periodic table. I recall the word velocity…
But if only I’d had a fiery teacher like Dr. David Wright for my physics classes!
He is a 69-year-old physics and astronomy professor at Tidewater Community College (TCC) in Virgina, USA, and he loves what he does for a living.
Some of the lessons include flames, nails, dry ice, skateboards, and balloons… just to name a few.
One of his students was so inspired but the lively and interactive lessons that she started recording them.
At some point during her semester, she’d collected so many of the clips that she made a compilation video and posted it to Twitter.
She said she was skeptical at first.
“I was a little worried going in. On the first day of class, he actually walked on a bed of broken glass. I was like, this is a little crazy. I’ve never seen a professor doing this before.” – Erica Church
But she quickly came around and fell in love with his teaching style, looking forward to every class.
The Elements of Physics class is a pre-requisite, which means it’s required by many students who aren’t necessarily interested in the course content.
Dr. Wright wanted to make physics more accessible to all the students in his class, and did what he could to make it fun.
“I figure if I’m not having fun teaching the course they’re not going to have any fun either. You should be really passionate in what you’re doing and I hope I serve as an example of that.” – Dr. David Wright
His lively experiments and immersive learning paid off, because his students were all very engaged! There’s no doubt that his students will likely remember the lessons that he taught them, and remember the class fondly.
At 69 years old it’s no easy feet to be walking over glass, setting things on fire, and jumping up and down on a pogo stick (someone please tell me what lesson this is, I want to attend).
But he’s dedicated to keeping his class interesting, which seems to help keep him young in return. He’s even been on a late night television show!
“We do these things all the time in class and I knew they always video them, and thought they’d post it for their friends but, this blew up!” – Dr. David Wright
The Twitter video has gone viral with more than 1.7 million likes and 500,000 retweets around the world.
Hopefully this incredible educator’s initiative will also go viral, inspiring more teachers to get their students involved with engaging demonstrations.
“If I can just reach a couple people with this, I don’t have to reach millions, but a few people might see this and say ‘that makes a difference to me, I think I’ll do something I didn’t want to do before'”. – Dr. David Wright
What an inspiration! I’m sure we’ll see a lot of physics enthusiasts coming out of Tidewater Community College in the coming years. More of this please!
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