Andrew Fraknoi

Andrew Fraknoi is an astronomy professor at Foothill College and the 2007 California Professor of the Year awarded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Fraknoi also won the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's 2007 Richard H. Emmons award, the American Institute of Physics's 2007 Andrew Gemant Award (given for a lifetime of contributions to the intersection of physics and culture), and the American Astronomical Society's 1994 Annenberg Foundation Award (for a lifetime of contributions to astronomy education.) The International Astronomical Union has named Asteroid 4859 Asteroid Fraknoi to recognize his contributions to science education and to the public understanding of astronomy. In 2013, he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Friends of the Lick Observatory.

Fraknoi served as the Executive Director of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific from 1978 to 1992, edited its popular-level magazine, Mercury, and founded its newsletter for teachers, called The Universe in the Classroom. He was the founder and director of a program called "Project ASTRO," which sets up partnerships between volunteer astronomers and 4th - 9th grade teachers; each astronomer "adopts" one classroom for a year, visiting at least four times and working with the teacher to do hands-on activities in astronomy. The program is still operating in 12 sites around the country. Later he founded and directed "Family ASTRO"—a project to design activities, kits and games to help families share the excitement of astronomical discovery. Fraknoi now works at the Society as Senior Educator, and edited an on-line column for its members, called "Astronomy Beat". Every three years, he has organized a national symposium for the Society called "Cosmos in the Classroom," which brings together 150 to 200 instructors of introductory college astronomy courses to learn and talk about how such courses can be made even more effective.

In addition to astronomy, Fraknoi also teaches courses in the area of "physics for poets." His interdisciplinary course on Einstein's life and work, Physics 12, won the 2005 “Innovation of the Year” award from the League for Innovation. In the course, students learn about some of the areas on modern physics that Einstein had a role in creating or changing, and then read novels, stories, and poems, and hear music influenced by Einstein's work and ideas. Fraknoi frequently writes articles on interdisciplinary topics, such as using music, poetry, or science fiction to teach science. He has listed science fiction stories with good astronomy in them and also astronomically inspired music.

Since 1999, Fraknoi has organized and moderated the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series, where noted astronomers from around California and the nation give nontechnical public talks on new developments in our exploration of the universe in the large Smithwick Theater at Foothill College. Cosponsored by NASA's Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the talks—attended by 400 to 900+ people each time—have featured Nobel laureates, members of the National Academy of Sciences, and many other distinguished scientists. In recent years, the lectures have been taped and many are now available on YouTube

Fraknoi has served on the Board of Trustees of the SETI Institute—a scientific and educational organization devoted to the search for life in the universe—since its inception in 1985. From 2010 to 2012, he was vice-chair of the Board. He was also on the program committee planning the first and second SETIcon—national weekend public conferences devoted to the scientific quest for our counterparts among the stars, in 2010 and 2012. In 2013, he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Friends of the Lick Observatory, now called the Lick Observatory Council.

Fraknoi was the lead author of "Voyages through the Universe", an introductory college astronomy textbook, which went through three editions, and was published by Brooks-Cole. In 2007, his first children's book, entitled Wonderful World of Space, was published by Disney. When D.J. Grothe asked about the book Fraknoi replied, "Well this has been a fun project. My son, who was 13 at the time, and I got a chance to write a picture book on astronomy for Disney and the challenge was how can we convey some of these modern ideas including the Big Bang; some of the things we talked about to kids who are in 4th or 5th grade." In the 1980s, he co-edited with Bryon Preiss two collections of science articles and science fiction stories, published by Bantam Books, called "The Universe" and "The Planets." With Sidney Wolff, Fraknoi founded and was co-editor of the first on-line journal devoted to astronomy education, "Astronomy Education Review".

His new book, Solar Science, written with Dennis Schatz, and published by the National Science Teachers Association is full of 45 hands-on activities about the Sun, the seasons, the Moon, eclipses, and more. It’s designed to help get educators and their students ready for the Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017.

Andrew Fraknoi is the lead author of the 2016 college textbook Astronomy, published by OpenStax College as a free book for college students around the world, part of a project at Rice University (supported by the Gates Foundation) to make college more affordable.

Fraknoi has had two stories published in science fiction anthologies. The story "Cave in Arsia Mons" is published in the book "Building Red: Mission Mars," edited by Janet Cannon, and the story "Supernova Rhythm" is published in the book "Science Fiction by Scientists," edited by Mike Brotherton and published by Springer.