Don Williams got his undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics from California State University, Fresno. His thesis work was on the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. Since graduating Don has been teaching a broad range of physics, chemistry and science courses at CSU Fresno. These include conceptual physics, introductory algebra-based and calculus-based physics courses, introductory astronomy, “Science and Nonsense” (a general education course on how to tell fact from fiction using science), and Natural Science 1A (the first course for future science teachers at the K-12 level). In all these courses Don instills a sense of excitement in his students toward physics and science. In the past five years Don has designed and built up a very successful service learning course called “Physics Outreach”. This course trains college students how to use demonstrations to explain physics concepts in a clear and concise way to students in K-12. Through this course, Don and his students have visited hundreds of local area schools and have attended conferences to present their outreach efforts, and have been on local TV and radio stations multiple times. Currently Don has a monthly TV spot on physics outreach with the local TV station KSEE24. Don’s outreach work has also started collaboration between his physics outreach class and the Kremen School of Education at CSU Fresno, which has partly supported Don’s outreach effort via a MISTY grant.
