“Try. Fail. Learn again.”

That was Assistant Professor of Physics Gavin Hester’s message for Brock’s newest graduates on Thursday, June 12 during the University’s 117th Convocation.

“It turns out that failure is not the obstacle of success,” he said during his Convocation address. “It’s part of the path.”

Hester was honoured during the ceremony with the 2025 Faculty of Mathematics and Science Excellence in Teaching Award.

Originally from the United States, he arrived at Brock in 2023 just days before teaching his first class. While it was a whirlwind start, the opportunity felt right and Hester was ready for something new.

His own academic path wasn’t straightforward. He considered business and engineering before learning more about the field of physics while touring universities, finding himself drawn to the pursuit of fundamental truths.

This path built on his love for figuring out how things worked, inspired by his curious uncles who often fixed things.

“If you understand why something works, you can understand how to fix it,” he said.

Hester has embraced this concept while working in physics, which he said is about more than mathematical calculations.

“Math is just the language you need to do physics,” he said. “What matters is the kind of thinking physics teaches: How to reduce a problem and see what’s actually important.”

As an educator, he reminds students that problem-solving may not get easier, but practice makes it possible to get better at doing hard things.

But teaching isn’t without its challenges. Hester said today’s students face shorter attention spans and often lack hands-on experience. He sees the shift from physical to digital as a barrier to intuitive understanding.

“When I was a kid, I learned physics by helping to fix things,” he said. “You can use a longer lever when a bolt won’t turn. That’s torque. You don’t need to know the word to get the concept.”

Last fall, Hester helped launch a foundational physics course, now called Essential Skills for Modern Scientists. The course goes beyond equations to include programming, error analysis, scientific ethics and case studies that help them see the bigger picture by connecting science to real-world issues.

To support learning, Hester has also flipped his classroom. One lecture each week is now a tutorial session where students solve problems, ask questions and learn through failure.

“Failure is where real learning happens. You learn far more from mistakes than from getting it right the first time,” he said.

He’s also experimenting with tools that allow students to receive instant feedback and try again.

While he said that seeing students have that “eureka moment” and grasp concepts is incredibly satisfying, he’s also learned from his own experience that “not knowing the answer is part of the process.”

“That’s hard to teach in a course,” he said. “But in the lab, students start to see that even the professor doesn’t always know. And that’s when real scientific thinking begins.”