Usually seeing teenagers pushing a car is a clear sign they have run out of gas, but AP and honors physics students at St. Aloysius High School pushed their teacher’s Mini Cooper around the parking lot for a completely different reason.
That teacher is Brian Blanche, who had his students push his car with a bathroom scale to determine how much the car weighed by using Newton’s Laws.
“We try to do as many hands-on activities as we can,” he said. “We’re always doing something.”
Blanche said it’s nice to know equations, but it’s better to see something proven in real life.
“We have excellent lab facilities,” he said. “We have an entire chemistry lab at our disposal. We can do anything chemistry and physics we need to.”
The students do experiments about once a week in the advanced placement courses, Blanche said.
“Anything with fire, they like it,” he said. “Anything with fire or colors.”
Blanche said the students have generated helium and tested buoyancy in the labs, among other projects.
After spending six years in the U.S. Navy, Blanche earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Louisiana Tech University, and then went on to work for Grand Gulf Nuclear Generating Station for more than 20 years.
After retiring, the licensed professional engineer was asked to teach AP physics, AP chemistry and honors physics part-time at St. Aloysius.
“It’s been a wonderful experience, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it,” he said. “The students are like sponges.”
Blanche said he must be very careful about what he says, because if he makes a mistake in a lecture, the students will remember it.
Blanche said at St. Al the students are brought up in an insulated environment and he likes the small-school atmosphere.
“The classes are small,” he said. “With a smaller class size you can have a lot more direct influence on the students.
Blanche said he likes to encourage his students to pursue a career in the sciences, but more importantly he wants them to go on to do something they will enjoy.
“I think the teachers here do a very good job of saying just pick something that you like,” he said. “I think we just do a good job of extolling the virtues of English, Spanish, math. It doesn’t matter, just get interested in something and go with it.”
Blanche’s wife, Cathy Blanche, a teacher’s assistant, is also at Vicksburg Catholic School, and so is their son, Travis, who is a senior.
Their daughter Margie Blanche is a St. Aloysius alumna and a senior at Delta State University.
Blanche said he enjoys running, and he competes in the Vicksburg Slam: Chill in the Hills, Run Thru History and Over the River Run.
Blanche said he enjoys working on stuff and described himself as a backyard, shade-tree mechanic.
“I play with my old stuff,” he said. “That helps when I talk to students. I can say, ‘this is what’s practical,’ or ‘this is an example of an automobile issue.’”
Blanche said he is also an avid reader.
“Every time I see the students I ask them what book they’re reading, and I tell them how cool it is,” he said. “The thing that I am floored by is that most of these students don’t like the e-books. They still want to hold a paper book.”