Excuses don’t fly with Palmer physics teacher

PALMER — When students question the real-world application of physics, Michael Fry has a strong leg to stand on.

“I flew F-15s for the Air Force. My Job was to shoot down airplanes,” Fry said. “I lived physics.”

Fry’s classroom at Palmer High School is filled with reminders of this past life acting as justifications for the subject matter. There is the commemorative plaque for Fry’s service in Operation Desert Storm, formations of fighter jets and the iconic circular cloud surrounding a plane as it breaks the sound barrier.

The military images also speak to the way Fry runs his classes.

“We have a contract,” Fry said. “I do demand a lot from both my students and myself.”

Fry came to teaching after 20 years in the Air Force. He saw tours in Europe and the Middle East before being stationed at Elmendorf Air Force Base for the last part of his career.

As the F-15 started to get phased out of service, Fry found himself behind a desk on base. Instead of pushing papers into his twilight years, he decided to become a teacher.

“It sounded better than killing. I was a pilot instructor once and always loved teaching,” Fry said.

After getting a master’s degree from University of Alaska Anchorage, Fry found a job teaching science at Palmer High.

Eight years later, Fry teaches two classes of freshman science and three Advanced Placement, or AP, classes: two sections of AP Physics B and one of AP Physics C Mechanics.

AP Physics B is “a mile wide and an inch deep,” Fry said. It is a concept-driven class covering the major topics in physics.

AP Physics C is a more in-depth study of five of these topics falling under the “Mechanics” subhead. The class forces students to learn calculus to solve the more complex problems behind physics.

“Math is the muscle of science,” Fry said. “We use math to decode the words of science in a way that is repeatable.”

The subject matter is difficult, he said, but that’s the point. Beyond the role physics plays in the real world, he said he tries to force his students out of their intellectual comfort zones.

“What can you learn from this? Skip the physics., that’s just a tool to learn life skills with,” Fry said.

Fry said after every year, students will say they learned something about themselves, about pressure and about being comfortable even when they can’t do something.

He said this partly comes from the International Baccalaureate program his AP classes are also a part of. The IB program takes a more humanistic approach to subjects, even physics.

But this also comes from the way Fry approaches teaching. Rather than coddling the students, Fry sees his job as preparing them for life after graduation.

“I make them comfortable enough, but my job is to prepare them for the real world,” Fry said. “We are the only species that doesn’t kick out offspring out at some point. I say go be a bear.”

Thus, there are no excuses for late assignments. Fry simply doesn’t accept them.

“Pain exists. There is a reason for pain: so you will learn,” Fry said. But Fry extends this no-excuse attitude to himself as well. He gets to school at 6 a.m. every morning, follows a strict assignment schedule posted well in advance, and gives out his home phone number and address to students. He commits to returning assignments to the students the very next time they meet.

“If you want the students to perform, you have to perform. If you say you are busy, they can say they are busy, and say it with justification,” Fry said.

Based on the results of his students’ AP test scores, his students are thriving under this philosophy. If students want to receive college credit for their AP classes, they have to pass a test at the end of the year. Fry said the national average for students opting to take the test is about 1 in 4. Of those who take the test, about 1 in 4 pass.

Fry said about 95 percent of his AP Physics B students take the test, and about 50 percent pass. The numbers are even higher for his AP Physics C class, he said.

Based on these test scores, and a subsequent application and recommendations, Fry was named the 2009-2010 Alaska AP Teacher of the Year. Palmer High will receive a $1,000 grant funded by the Siemens Foundation for his students’ success.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.