Dan Scolnic

The Limit Does Not Exist: Daniel Scolnic’s Astronomy Class Encourages Exploration

K’mari Greene, Trinity Communications

The First-Year Experience in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, designed to foster community among students, includes the longstanding FOCUS program and new Constellations cohorts. Students are encouraged to think creatively and outside of the box as they explore important and timely questions through interconnected courses.  

There are 16 Constellations offered in the 2025-2026 academic year. Daniel Scolnic, associate professor of Physics, will be teaching Intro to Astronomy as part of the What is the Cosmos? Constellation. 

"What I like about the First-Year Experience is that it gets students to thinks about a question from many different angles."

Scolnic’s love for physics began when he read a quote from Einstein: “Time is a dimension in space.” From that moment on, he was hooked. He’s looking forward to sharing his enthusiasm with students in his Constellation, fostering an atmosphere that will inspire them to think deeply.

“What I like about the First-Year Experience is that it gets students to think about a question from many different angles,” he said.

Scolnic finds ways to keep students on their toes and engaged in his class. He encourages students to be creative and think for themselves, peppering his lectures with prompts that require quick, off-the-cuff responses. 

“Every three or four slides I’ll ask a clicker question, and you only have ten seconds to answer,” he said. “You don’t have time to use ChatGPT.”   

He also enlivens his lectures by assigning “podcast hosts,” two students who are responsible for asking — and answering — questions.  

Scolnic notes that students often get stuck in the “They’re the professor, I’m the student” mindset, but he hopes to break that barrier. “I want to remind students there’s no screen between us. I’m just a person, and I’ll start walking up the steps to break that screen.”    

He encourages students not to limit their experiences or box themselves in by saying things like, “I want to be a writer, so why would I take a physics class?” Scolnic hopes students will find that their curiosity, like the cosmos, has no limits.