ASR Science Teacher Is Serious About Fun

by Mindy Misener, English teacher

Greg Williams, physics and chemistry teacher at the Academy at Swift River, is standing on a stool in his classroom, hanging Christmas lights around its perimeter. He explains that he's trying to create festive lighting for the science movies he occasionally shows, which range from Myth Busters to a movie on sky diving.

Greg's room is full of interesting items. Frond-like goose feathers protrude from the pencil can in the middle of the large lab bench. A colorful set of interlocking plastic wheels cover a side whiteboard. A large telescope sits in the corner of the room. A series of magnetic spheres lie on the lab bench in the shape of an 8.

Christmas lights and colorful wheels and goose feathers may create a whimsical environment, but the content of Greg's classes is hardly whimsical. If there's one thing Greg is serious about, it's science. Things may promote fun, but they have another purpose, too.

"Almost everything I bring in," he says, "creates what I call a 'discrepant event,' which is something that happens that a student doesn't expect."

He steps down from the stool to show me a bottle filled with water, in which a rubber bulb (which looks like a deflated balloon) is floating. He squeezes the bottle, and the rubber bulb sinks.

"See?" he says. "I'm demonstrating the principles of both Archimedes and Pascal. Perfect for a physics teacher."

Five minutes later, I'm still squeezing the plastic bottle, making the rubber bulb sink and float, and wondering about Archimedes and Pascal. Greg finishes hanging the lights. He briefly turns off the overhead lights to the classroom so that only the newly hung lights, which are red and blue and green, remain lit.

"This is awesome. I love it, I love it," he says.

***

"I've never been able to learn physics before," says one ASR student. When asked how it is that Greg has managed to illustrate the ideas of physics, he says, "He keeps it on your mind. He reinforces whatever you're learning, and we get quizzes all the time."

It's surprising that such frequent quizzing doesn't result in disgruntled students. ASR students, however, speak enthusiastically about Greg. I ask a few of them the following question: What makes Greg Williams the teacher he is?

"He will answer any science-related question," says a male student. He pauses to think. "Any science-related question," he says again. Another student says, "The beard."

Students also talk about Greg's punning (more than once, upon entering a discussion about lightning, Greg has commented, "What a shocking story!"). Anyone taking one of Greg's classes learns to pay attention to his lectures so as not to miss one of the many puns interspersed throughout. A moment of distraction during lecture can mean missing one of the jokes.

One student explains it this way: "Suddenly everybody is laughing, and you don't know why."

Exciting things often happen in science class: Recently, Greg was doing an in-class demonstration using an air-pressured soda bottle rocket. He had his hand over the rocket, to keep it contained. Someone said, "Can we take this outside?"

Greg assented, and as he describes it, "The whole class ran outside. We shot it off and it ended up going over one hundred feet high."

Greg is also known for the way he uses humorous, simple language to describe reactions in chemistry.

Standing at the whiteboard during a lecture, on which the chemical structures of any number of molecules have been drawn, he'll say, "If you add a little bit o' dis, you get a little bit o' dat." It never fails to draw at least smiles from even timid students.

Any teacher knows that there is a great deal of satisfaction in helping the most fearful students overcome their difficulties with a subject. It's a goal that Greg pursues relentlessly. He explains his philosophy this way: "Students should look forward to class, should feel welcomed and encouraged to express themselves, and should be open to having fun." In order to accomplish this, he explores different teaching styles. Greg works with struggling students continuously in his warm, jovial way, keeping the tutoring full of puns and playfulness. Any student who puts in the effort is bound to succeed. And Greg has gone to great lengths to see success.

"I had one female student who was petrified of my class," he says, "just petrified. Well, one day she broke her shoe, and I repaired it. After that, I had her full attention in class." He laughs, and says, "Sometimes it takes the strangest things that win a student's trust."

***

The interview is ending and I put the Cartesian Diver aside and walk out of Greg's room, which is in the main hallway of the ASR Academic Building. Because of his classroom's location, Greg often meets touring families and consultants. Any visitor who wants to locate Greg's classroom should look for the lights and listen for the laughter.