Taking knocks in the name of science education

11/30/2001 BOZEMAN -- Wearing a crash helmet, Montana State University physics teacher and researcher John Carlsten prepares to hurtle himself across the classroom in the name of science. The 80 plus students stare wide-eyed as Carlsten sits down on a wheeled wooden platform, wraps his legs around a fire extinguisher, pushes the plunger and shoots off across the room.

"The first time I did this I didn't have anyone on the other side to stop me and I flew through the lecture hall doors," Carlsten jokes to the students. The point of the experiment, he says, is to illustrate the physics principal of momentum conservation.

This physical experimentation is standard most days in Carlsten's Physics 211, a calculus- based introductory physics course. It's all part of making physics accessible to students who aren't physics majors.

"Sometimes I think I have more fun than the students do," Carlsten laughs. "The essence of teaching is sharing knowledge."

It's this love of teaching and dedication to students that earned Carlsten this year's MSU James and Mary Ross Provost's Award for Excellence that recognizes excellence in teaching and scholarship.

"What makes John superior is his infectious, child-like excitement for learning and discovery," said John Hermanson, head of MSU's physics department. "John is totally dedicated to students. If he is in the middle of a one-on-one session with a student, he will come late to faculty meetings, or even skip them."

"He's awesome," said engineering student Katie Hickok. "I just love him. He explains things so clearly and makes the concept so simple. He's so willing to help and he doesn't make you feel like you're bothering him."

After physics class a covey of students regularly clusters around the ever genial Carlsten with questions.

"I love interacting with students," Carlsten said. "It's one of the loves of my life. Students can come by and visit me in my office, e-mail, call, catch me at lunch, stop me in the hall. It's fine."

Carlsten has been a Regents Professor since 1992, a prestigious distinction awarded to only three current MSU faculty members, and he was the director of the Optical Technology Center at MSU from 1992-1997. He is a nationally recognized researcher in non-linear optics, stimulated raman scattering, quantum fluctuations, diode lasers and fiber optics. Despite his standing, students and peers alike say he expresses real joy in teaching physics.

His provost award this year is one of many awards for Carlsten including the MSU Wiley Award for Meritorious Research, the MSU Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award, Phi Kappa Phi Distinguished Teaching Award, CLS Outstanding Teaching Award, Cox Family Faculty Award for Creative Scholarship.

"I get attracted to courses that faculty members tell me are difficult to teach," Carlsten said. "I go in and see if I can figure a way to reach students."

"Inquiry is the first element that I consider when developing a set of lectures," Carlsten notes. "Only when I stimulate the majority of the students in the class to start asking questions about the application of the material discovered in class will they truly start to know and be excited by the physics. The lectures are designed to emphasize examples from real life."

That's why students watch him pull a tablecloth out from under a set of dishes or knock raw eggs into glass jars to illustrate the principle of impulse. Carlsten gives the credit for the creation of many of the intriguing physics demonstrations to fellow professors like Larry Kirkpatrick.

"The physics department is like one big family," he said. "We share techniques. If I get stumped in a teaching area I can always go down the hall and get an idea. It's a wonderful group of people to work with."

Carlsten has been teaching physics at the introductory level at MSU since his arrival in 1984. He credits a physics teacher in high school where he grew up in Minnesota with fueling his excitement for teaching. Carlsten came to MSU from a post as an associate group leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A Ph.D. from Harvard, Carlsten has also taught at the University of Colorado.

Along with teaching, Carlsten also loves research work. "For physicists, research is a puzzle we enjoy solving," he said. "We find intriguing problems and we want to solve them. The fun is in the solving."

As a teacher and mentor for graduate research students, he tries to share that sense of fun. "He's always happy and easy going, but when you get frustrated with a problem he's there to help," said graduate student Sytil Murphy.

Carlsten says he stays at MSU because he enjoys his research, the students, fly fishing and the mountains. As to the future, Carlsten sees it linked to teaching.

"Some of the physics majors have asked me to teach upper division courses again, whatever I do I'll definitely be teaching," he said.

Send questions or comments to Brenda McDonald: bmcdonal@montana.edu. Or you can send letters to Brenda McDonald, MSU Communications Services, 416 Culbertson Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717.

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