The 2019 JMU High School Physics Teacher of the Year, Mr. Christopher Foust

Mr. Christopher Foust with freshman Devin Stipe

On November 5, 2019, we had the honor of hosting the 2019 JMU High School Physics Teacher of the Year, Mr. Christopher Foust, nominated by freshman physics major Devin Stipe, for a day to tour our department and talk about his experience as a physics educator with faculty, students, and even alumni!  This is the fourth year that the program has run, and articles for the previous winners can be found here.

Mr. Foust graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a MS in biology, where he focused on biodegradable plastics.  It was here where he first entered the education field by working as a graduate lab instructor for biology.  After graduating, he then worked with Capital One in their adult education department, teaching ethics and customer service.  Through these experiences, he developed a love for teaching and subsequently participated in the Virginia Department of Education’s Career Switcher Alternative Route to Licensure Program at the University of Virginia to gain teaching licensure in biology and physics.  In 2003, he was hired by Henrico and was posted at Hermitage High School, where he has remained ever since.

Receiving the JMU HSPToY Award from Dr. Christopher Hughes

Mr. Foust talked with us about some of what he’s learned as an educator, from how he tries to get his students excited about learning physics, the largest struggles he has as an educator, and where he sees potential for growth both in his own classroom and in physics instruction in general. 

As an educator, Mr. Foust’s greatest struggle lies not in the teaching or in interacting with students, but more with administrative tasks he may have to do.  His advice for getting through this work is to attack the most unpleasant or arduous tasks upfront and toughing them out.  While they’re far from the most fun, once they’re done, Mr. Foust notes that you’re free to do whatever you like after.  And if what you like is making physics classes enjoyable and getting people excited about learning the content, Mr. Foust has a great approach!

When it comes to getting students curious and driven to learn about physics Mr. Foust states that one of his best assets is in showmanship.  He has a “demo-a-day” approach where every day a new concept is introduced with a small but strange phenomenon and later explored in more detail.  An example would be the classic tablecloth yanking party trick to introduce friction.  It serves as something students may have already seen, is easily scalable for classrooms, and is novel but simple to get students trying to figure out what exactly is going on.  Another example of a demo would be hitting a textbook on his hand with a hammer to introduce the concept of pressure.  These demonstrations serve to make physics more accessible and more engaging to students, easing them into the subject while still teaching them the underlying concepts.

With technology becoming a much more integral part of the public education system, Mr. Foust sees much potential for growth in using these new tools in and out of the classroom.  He often uses the University of Colorado, Boulder’s PhET Lab simulations as a pre-lab activity for students, and there are many more tools that he hasn’t yet explored.  Another place for growth is in student-led instruction and flipped classroom methods, where Mr. Foust notes that some of the most meaningful learning occurs when one student explains a concept to another. 

We also got to hear a bit about Mr. Foust’s philosophy as an educator, and a bit of where it comes from.  Mr. Foust never took physics in high school himself, and he knows how large of a roadblock physics’s notoriety as a difficult subject can be to students taking and enjoying his class.  To this end, he believes in reassuring his students that the class isn’t going to be a straight lecture, using humor, experiments, and physics magic to get students to relax and engage with the subject.  He also believes deeply in letting students work together.  He structures many of his labs with more open-ended procedures, trying to get students to work together to figure out how they can achieve the goals for the lab that Mr. Foust sets.  He doesn’t believe that you need to be the greatest mathematician entering the class, nor in leaving it, but what matters the most is in understanding the concepts presented by physics, and their implications in the world.  For example, he often makes connections to physics with the physiology and anatomy class he teaches, harkening back to his experience with biology and also relating the material to a class that many of his students are concurrently taking.

Mr. Foust’s greatest source of pride in his career hasn’t been a fancy award or title.  It’s been in what he sees in the students.  When he’s able to inspire a student to pursue physics, or when a student finally gets just why physics is cool, Mr. Foust notes it’s one of the most satisfying feelings as a teacher.  He notes one of the most amazing moments as being when you have students during a more idle period, either in-between classes or at lunch for example, where they could talk about anything in the world, and yet they are arguing about what happens in physics or why something in the world happens because of physics.  Mr. Foust’s greatest joy in teaching has really been in learning from the students, letting the students explore and discover how to approach concepts in ways that he wouldn’t have thought of before.

Thank you again to Mr. Foust for visiting the JMU Department of Physics and Astronomy, and especially for being a fantastic educator.  We certainly don’t present the High School Physics Teacher of the Year Award lightly, and it’s always wonderful to get to know and share the impact that a great teacher has on our students.  Another thank you as well to Devin Stipe for nominating Mr. Foust, and we hope to see more fantastic physics educators in the future!

The 2018 JMU High School Physics Teacher of the Year, Mr. Nicholas Leonard

Mr. Nicholas Leonard (right) with Dr. Christopher Hughes

        On November 6, 2018, we had the honor of hosting the 2018 JMU High School Physics Teacher of the Year, Mr. Nicholas Leonard, for a day to tour our department and talk about his experience as  a physics educator with faculty, students, and even alumni!

         Mr. Leonard received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002.   Before becoming a teacher, he worked at a semiconductor processing facility.  After leaving the company, he spent about a year looking for a job before he accepted a teaching position for chemistry at Highland Springs High School in Henrico County, Virginia.  After a year there, he moved to Monacan High School in Chesterfield County, where he has remained to this day.  Like at Highland Springs, he began with chemistry and then in 2010 he began to teach physics classes as well.  As of current, Mr. Leonard now primarily teaches physics. 

         Mr. Leonard talked with us about some of what he’s learned as an educator, from how physics and chemistry education is different to how he tries to get students to understand material and also things that can be frustrating as a teacher.  While Mr. Leonard first started teaching physics out of some necessity, he cites his primary reason for now teaching only physics classes being that it’s much easier, and more fun, to actually demonstrate to students what he wants them to investigate.  He also mentions that, when students have trouble understanding particular concepts, it’s useful to help them identify relationships and patterns with what’s going on, and making use of visual aids is often a very useful tool for these purposes.  His largest pet peeve with the job is just when students won’t ask him questions.  Mr. Leonard says that questions are helpful in identifying where he can improve as an educator, and also where he may need to revisit a concept or slow down the pace so that everyone understands clearly what’s going on in class.

          We also got to hear a bit of how Mr. Leonard tries to structure his class, and key to this is his core philosophy behind teaching.  As Mr. Leonard says himself, “I want to teach so I’m having fun!” and this entails a lot of interaction with the students, both in projects and in class structure.  A typical class utilizes a small demo as the beginning of discussion, and students are encouraged to discuss and ask questions about what’s going on with the demonstration.    There may be some smaller notes or formulae to copy down, but most of what happens is really a conversation about the subject at hand, whether it be projectile motion or energy.  When it comes to projects, Mr. Leonard tries to engage students with projects that focus on applying the skills learned in the classroom with design and construction principles in engineering.  Whether it be designing a cart so that it travels a certain distance or achieves a certain distance within a certain time, to having students create towers out of popsicle sticks and marshmallow launchers to lay siege to said towers, students are expected to work collaboratively both among themselves and with Mr. Leonard to apply the knowledge they’ve gained from class.

Mr. Leonard with Jack Clabough (left)

          Thank you again to Mr. Leonard, it was a great pleasure to have such as dedicated and engaged teacher share with us his experiences as an educator, and a thank you as well to Jack Clabough, the freshman physics major who nominated him!

The 2017 JMU High School Physics Teacher of the Year, Mr. Jon Goetz

We had the pleasure of welcoming Mr. Jon Goetz, the 2017 James Madison University High School Physics Teacher of the Year, to James Madison University.  While he was here, we are able to talk a bit about his background, how he came to teach high school physics, and some advice he has to students, both the general populace and to prospective educators.

Mr. Jon Goetz (left) with Dr. Chris Hughes

Mr. Goetz started his undergraduate career studying aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He then continued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied mechanical engineering.  Despite this, he recognized that his passions were more in education, and after a brief stint in industry, went back to pursue a degree an education from Harvard University.  In 1994, Mr. Goetz began teaching physics and mathematics at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland, where he has remained to the present day. 

When it comes to teaching, Mr. Goetz states that he enjoys most the amount of creativity involved with the job, saying that, “teaching is half art, half skill…constructing pathways towards understanding.”  He describes his experience as a mix of showmanship and passion, and a job where he never sits looking at the clock.  Ultimately, he says his goal is for his students to enjoy the class, and he certainly has different ways of achieving this.  Mr. Goetz believes that learning comes from engagement, and has created a series of physics games to bring in excitement into the classroom.  Among them is a zipline challenge, where students had to design a zipline to transport objects into a bucket.  In addition, he provides students with many different real-world examples of physics so that they can see where the concepts they learn apply, be they in-class demonstrations of throwing eggs at sheets to visualize waves or videos of cats flipping around due to torque.  Mr. Goetz believes that the way in which he teaches is as important as what he teaches, and it certainly shows.

To potential educators, Mr. Goetz says that the role of a teacher has to be motivated from somewhere inside.  He also says that, while it is hard work, the job can be very rewarding, especially as the energy he puts into the job is always worthwhile.  For all students, Mr. Goetz advises to not be afraid to try something, and also to not be afraid to change their minds.  He sees that the world has much to offer, and to not see what is out there would be a disservice to oneself. 

Thank you again, Mr. Goetz!