From a list of six nominees, the Academic Senate of the Contra Costa Community College District named Scott Cabral Teacher of the Year, after serving as a beacon of experience and support for students and fellow professors alike for over 35 years. As the spring semester pushes forward, beloved astronomy professor Cabral reflects on his career in preparation for his retirement this coming May.
Cabral’s love for astronomy began in early childhood. When he was nearly five or six years old, he was captivated by an astronomy picture book titled “Exploring the Planets” left on his family’s coffee table.
“At that age, I couldn’t read the book, but I could look at the pictures,” said Cabral. “I’ve just been interested in it ever since.”
Upon graduating high school, Cabral pursued an education in science at UC Berkeley. He took on a double major in both physics and astronomy.
“It’s a matter of not procrastinating, of planning,” Cabral said. “The professors were very reasonable about not giving us too much to do in any one week. So if you just set aside the time expected, then you have no trouble getting the work done.”
Following UC Berkeley, Cabral went on to study at San Francisco State University, where he obtained a master’s degree. It was at SFSU when Cabral began teaching for the first time. For a few semesters, he taught lab classes as a graduate student.
But his first community college teaching experience was at LMC, where he taught part-time from 1989 until 2002 when he became a full-time professor.
Throughout the years, Cabral witnessed several changes to LMC’s campus — including the construction of the new science building — but one of his favorites was the renovated planetarium.
First built in 1974, the planetarium originally had a more basic set-up. In 2003, however, it saw welcome improvements such as new carpet, new wall panels, updated equipment, a bigger control console, and elevated floors.
Cabral uses the planetarium for instruction every day, excluding exams. Most students enjoy this observational approach to learning.
“Even if they don’t think it’s that special, I still think they learn better when they see things shown and explained in the planetarium,” said Cabral.
Cabral’s teaching philosophy is modeled after his own experience as a student. He employs lots of analogies, steering clear of mathematics, to make the material more accessible — especially for those lacking experience in astronomy.
“I’d say the vast majority of students don’t even know what astronomy is. They’ve had no exposure to it,” said Cabral.
It is through this lens that he hopes to introduce students to what he describes as a very interdisciplinary science. It overlaps with chemistry, physics and mathematics. As Cabral pointed out, the Newtonian laws of physics originated from an astronomy problem, and Newton invented calculus for his work in astronomy.
“I like them [students] to know that astronomy is the most far-reaching, the oldest — and to me — the most interesting science there is. I want them to really appreciate how awe-inspiring and amazing the concepts in astronomy are.”
It was hard for Cabral to choose a favorite astronomy topic. While he does tend to gravitate to more complex concepts, he holds an appreciation for everything about astronomy. He described the way his enthusiasm shifts from topic to topic while teaching.
“Maybe whatever topic I’m covering at the current time is my favorite topic,” he said.
Carbal’s teaching career holds many highlights, such as being the main organizer at LMC for the East County Science Fair, organizer of MESA and honors retreats, planner of star-gazing activities and other extracurriculars to help students get an interactive science experience.
But Cabral cited the arrival of astronomy Professor Katie Berryhill to LMC as one of his proudest achievements. With his retirement, he is excited to welcome her as his replacement.
Berryhill described Cabral as one of the kindest human beings she had ever met. She asserted how much students adored his class.
“I’ve lost count of the amount of random people I’ve met who remember his class years after taking it,” she said.
With almost 25 years of total teaching experience, Berryhill has been working as a part time astronomy professor at LMC for the last eight years.
“I like to say that maybe my biggest contribution to the college was getting Katie in here,” Cabral said. “The main thing I’d say about her is that she’s much more creative, imaginative, ambitious and hardworking than I am.”
Currently, Cabral teaches four sections of astronomy and loves interacting with enthusiastic students. Outside of teaching, he enjoys hiking, mountain biking, and visiting national parks — with Yosemite being the one he finds most impressive.
