Popular Science: Chemistry teacher’s classroom is lit!
Manteca High chemistry teacher William Hillier pours ethanol into a bottle while preparing for an experiment. It’s experiments like this that make Hillier’s class exciting and engaging. (Roberto Facundo/The Tower)
By MELISSA VALLE
The Tower
The best way to describe William Hillier’s classroom is warm and exciting.
Hillier is a chemistry teacher at Manteca High. He’s been a teacher for 30 years now and went to both Modesto Junior College and Chico State for school.
Once a student walks into his classroom, they’re greeted with a great smile. Hillier’s room is covered in posters and signs, not in a clustered way like many would expect, but in a fashionable way. The posters differ from landscapes to life cycles to safety and inspirational quotes.
There’s never a dull moment in this space.
Being a student in this classroom means to be involved in some of the coolest experiments a student could ever know. Experiments range from simple temperature changes to explosions, like the “WHOOSH” bottle.
WHOOSH!
William Hillier began this class period with an attention-grabbing experiment. With a few materials and some ethanol, the popular chemistry teacher created fire. (Roberto Facundo/The Tower)
Hillier starts by coating the inside of a five-gallon bottle with 20-mililiters of ethanol and then places a Kleenex at the top. He then lights a match and drops it into the bottle. After a few seconds, the bottle fills with flames and releases them into the atmosphere, letting out a whooshing sound.
Hillier uses this experiment to describe the chemical reaction of combustion.
Although chemistry is a tough subject for most students, Hillier makes the subject engaging for his students. The Tower sat in on one of Hillier’s experiments and spoke to the popular science teacher about what called him to teaching:
The Tower: What called you to teaching?
William Hillier: It was a work activity for college, a scholarship thing where you got a job. I had one job where I launched weather balloons every morning and got paid for it. I got a scholarship for that. In this case, I got a job to go assist in the back of a science classroom. It was an 8th grade classroom and the teacher put me in the back of the room with all the kids who were failing. … I got all of them to pass. He said you have a knack for this, maybe you should consider teaching. I had a couple other instructors when we (the class) had to teach a unit in the classroom in college, everyone was all nervous, and I was my usual smart aleck self. They said, you know, you have kind of a knack for this, you should consider this. At that point I was a geology major (and) I knew I didn’t want to travel away from my family, (so) I was kind of looking for something.
TT: What brought you to teach specifically at Manteca High?
WH: Manteca High, I wound up at because of the pandemic. I had been at East Union almost 18 years, and when the pandemic happened my wife was immunocompromised, so it was a risk to her life for me to be in a classroom, so I switched to the online academy, and I worked there for a year and a half. I was kind of frustrated with the lack of success we were having at the online academy, so when the pandemic subsided and we had our shots, I was looking to get back in the classroom. Manteca High had an opening.
“I’m kind of set in sciences now. I enjoy being able to blow stuff up once in a while. I’m kind of happy here.”
TT: Was science/chemistry always a strong subject for you?
WH: Chemistry was my weakest subject in high school. I actually wanted to be a veterinarian, but I decided not to because I didn’t like chemistry. That actually turned out to be an advantage as a teacher because I understand when kids don’t get it. I think a lot of people, when things are easy for them, don’t know why kids don’t get it. I didn’t get it, so it’s an advantage for me. I had to work for it, so I encourage kids to work for it.
TT: If you had the opportunity to teach anything else, would you? Why or why not?
WH: I enjoy teaching physics. Like chemistry, the labs are fun. I taught history for a little while. I would’ve been a history major, but I can’t read very fast; I have a reading disability. I’d enjoy teaching history, but I don’t know, I’m kind of set in sciences now. I enjoy being able to blow stuff up once in a while. I’m kind of happy here.
TT: What’s your favorite lab to do with a class?
WH: I like doing the flame test lab. Everybody enjoys that. I like doing the spectrophotometry lab with the Honors and AP classes, where we put the samples in the machines and measure them out and draw the graph. It’s just a very instructive lab. But in terms of fun, the flame test lab.