Star Spangler Science...

There clearly is no better science teacher on the planet than me.

But there are a few who are more famous... Steve Spangler out in Denver seems to have at least a bit of solid local celebrity. In a really great demo - that I'm going to try over break - you can see him making a real mess of a morning show host. Check out his blog for a bunch of other awesome demos and videos. (To see why this works, by the way, check over here.)

There's also the pretty rockin' Lee Marek who has been on David Letterman's show and on the Bozo show. He's even taken some of his students onto the Letterman show with him. The kids get to do some pretty cool experiments on Letterman as well. He also does a lot of rockin' demos not on television. I've been lucky enough to see him at a couple of NSTA workshops through the years. They're not the biggest circles in the world, but he's kinda famous in chemistry teacher circles.

I'd also like to give a shout out to Bob Becker who has a much lower internet profile but who is, nonetheless, a pretty spectacular guy who's contributed a ton of techniques and ideas to the chemistry teacher knowledge bank.

And on a more personal and chemical note, I owe uncalculable thanks to David Phillips one of my great chemistry profs at Wabash; his wife Pru Phillips, under whom I did my student teaching and who is a truly spectacular chemistry teacher; Lee Cordrey, my mentor and friend at Mt. Healthy HS; Melanie Huber of Terre Haute South Vigo HS; and Doug Studer, who teaches next door to me at PHS.

If you're a chemistry person interested in any of these guys' stuff, check out their opinions before borrowing their ideas.