What's Their Secret

By John Paul Peng     9/14/11 7:00pm

A quick look at Professor Frank Jones' course evaluation statistics on ESTHER will tell you that his students love his class. Just look at the evaluations for his spring 2011 class,  MATH 222: Honors Calculus IV, if you want proof: out of 33 students enrolled in the class, 30 completed the course and instructor evaluations.

All of them had nothing but great things to say. Every category in the instructor section had at least a 90 percent rating of "outstanding," the highest rating possible.

Studying under Jones was no cakewalk for the students, though; they weren't just here to gush about how Jones was so great for giving them an easy A.

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As a matter of fact, a 60 percent majority of the 30 students who completed the course evaluation considered the course as having a heavier workload than other courses at Rice.

So, what's his secret?

The native Texan, father of three, and grandfather of eight cites his love for mathematics, which he calls the "most beautiful subject created by mankind," as the reason.

As for the students, Jones reveals that he likes to think that it is that because of the heavy coursework they learn a lot.

As Jones puts it, the material sticks with them, and the students realize, eventually how valuable it is.

According to Jones, in this way, the students can eventually grow to be not just calculus students but mathematicians.

However also of great importance are the people, like the student body, Jones mentioned.

"We have excellent students in there and they help each other," Jones noted. "They're very alive in the classroom. It all works together. It's not just the professor. It's the whole situation."

Speaking of the whole  situation,  Jones also had praise for his colleagues in the mathematics department.

"I have colleagues, math professors, who are just wonderful," he emphasized. "I'm all the time talking to them, bouncing ideas off of them, learning from them. The relationship between students and professors at Rice, I think, is as good as it could possibly be."

Jones is a dedicated Rice gentleman; having been a part of the Rice faculty since 1962, he earned both his undergraduate degree and his doctorate from Rice — he can think of no other place for him to be.

 

"What's Their Secret?" is a weekly feature that highlights a faculty member who has had a significant impact on Rice students.

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