His Story
Floyd Holt calls teaching “a dream job” for a physics major. For more than 28 years he taught physics at Franklin D. Roosevelt High School in Hyde Park, New York, and he turned his classroom into one of the best-known science classrooms in the country. His “Spaceship Classroom of the Future” was modeled on the bridge of the starship Enterprise, with a captain’s console up front, computer screens, projection and sound systems, and a voice-controlled “Roboteacher” teaching station. His students built robots, a “flying saucer” that actually flew, holograms, a walking robot and an android, learning a tremendous amount of physics along the way. As colleague George Amann puts it, “they were hardly aware of it since they were having so much fun.”
Holt paid for the classroom largely through grants. He wrote to many of the country’s biggest corporations, and his Xerox Teacher Recognition grants were the only ones of their kind in Xerox’s history. They funded assemblies at which all students in grades 9–12 honored their teachers. His teaching was recognized with the Walt Disney American Teacher in Science award, a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Math, an IBM Teacher of the Year award and a spot on the USA Today All-USA Teacher Team, and his students nominated him for many of them. He is a Woodrow Wilson National Fellow from Princeton and a Physics Teachers Resource Agent, and he has taught as an adjunct professor of physics at Marist College.
Even after he retired, Holt kept going. In 1999 he formed Classroom of the Future, Inc., a nonprofit that grew from the Spaceship Classroom into the Spaceship Discovery Science and Technology Center, a 10,000-square-foot museum with a mission control, a time machine and a spaceport. Holt serves as its full-time, unpaid director and president.
Beyond the Classroom
Holt has brought science to young people well beyond his own classroom. For many years his students ran a “Wonders of Science” show for preschool, elementary and middle schools and scout groups. He and his students judged science fairs from the district level to the state Olympiad at West Point, and served as technical advisors for the Hudson Valley Philharmonic’s young people’s program and for school plays. He coached track and soccer for many years and runs a Sponsor a Child program through which his physics students collected donations daily for underprivileged children.
He has also trained other teachers. As a Physics Teachers Resource Agent, he led national workshops, and he gave many years of after-school and weekend workshops through the NYS Mentors program and the Science Teachers Association of New York State to help elementary teachers overcome their “fear factor” for science. He reorganized the science department at Hyde Park and took part in a Xerox national radio campaign about using color in the classroom.
Colleague George Amann notes that nearly every year Holt takes on a “misfit,” a student with academic or disciplinary problems who would not normally take physics, and makes that student his protégé on the Spaceship Classroom team, often paying them for their work out of his own pocket and “never accepting less than their best efforts.”
Philosophy Into Practice
Holt starts from motivation, which he calls “the single most important factor that will afford success.” Every day is infused with real-world examples, inventions, news stories, movies and hands-on experiments. His classes run more than 40 labs a year, along with demonstrations such as cryogenics, the Rocket Truck and the Bed of Nails, and field trips to science museums and the MIT robotics lab. Students write their own web sites, tutor other students and teach science to elementary children who visit the Spaceship Classroom.
Students could retake tests as many times as they wished until they were happy with the grade, so that “they learn from the past but live in the future.” The pledge he made to every student was that if they followed his high performance program they were guaranteed success. His physics classes had nearly a 100 percent pass rate on the New York State Regents exam for a number of years.
“Teachers are the architects, engineers, and artists of change. They capture the human spirit so that it will take wing and fly.”— Floyd Holt
“Imagination is infinite: in order for something to occur, someone has to imagine it first.”— Floyd Holt
In His Own Words
“I believe that motivation is the single most important factor that will afford success.”— Floyd Holt
“I believe that “Life is measured by the moments that take our breath away.””— Floyd Holt
“Intrinsic motivation is the magic ingredient and the secret weapon is fun.”— Floyd Holt
“Apparent failures are only hurdles to try again.”— Floyd Holt
“Our students are the “stars of the show”! They author their own web sites and tutor other students.”— Floyd Holt
“Education is the solution to all problems.”— Floyd Holt
What Others Said
“That Floyd Holt is among the finest physics teachers in the country, there can be no doubt.”— George Amann, retired colleague and Co-director, AAPT/PTRA Program
“As a Board of Education Trustee, I have had the opportunity to observe many teachers. As you would expect, some are good and others are not; then there is Floyd Holt.”— Douglas H. Hieter, Trustee, Hyde Park Board of Education
“He has the ability to connect with his students in almost magical ways. Students can feel the excitement Floyd has for the material he teaches.”— Douglas H. Hieter, Trustee, Hyde Park Board of Education
“He embodies the “renaissance” man label and consequently is a singularly excellent science teacher when measured by his consistent invention and use of innovative technologies.”— Richard Taylan, parent of a student
“Floyd is a person dedicated to making his teaching an exciting adventure for his students as well as a great learning experience.”— George Amann, retired colleague
“Justin was so eager to learn as a result that he performed at the highest levels imaginable throughout the year and on his final exams.”— Richard Taylan, parent of a student