Spanglerific

It's been thirteen years since Bill Nye the Science Guy went off the air, and we've been looking for a replacement science guy in the dozen years since.

I'm starting to think, however, that we might have found our new science guy in Steve Spangler.  I saw Spangler at an NSTA conference in St Louis a few years back and was impressed with the theatricality of his demonstrations.  I was surprised to see that I've already mentioned him four times in the blog since then.

This past week, though, the above video made the rounds on the AP chem listserve.  The discussion was how Spangler got the massively quick version of the elephant toothpaste - warmed the catalyst, warmed the hydrogen peroxide, upped the concentration of catalyst, somehow bought greater than 30% hydrogen peroxide.  As Spangler isn't part of our listserve - at least he isn't an active one, anyway, we don't have a definitive answer, but my guess is upping the concentration of catalyst.  I know when I use the solid catalyst, the area with the solid catalyst reacts very quickly, and I'm thinking that a high concentration of the sodium iodide catalyst would have a similar effect.  I also want to check out whether the use of the Erlenmeyer flasks give greater lift than do the two-liter bottles that I typically use.

Spangler has also released a pair of books - Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes and Secret Science.  Naked Eggs is the newer and far more attractive of the books, and it looks like Spangler is positioning himself to have a bigger seller than what could be achieved with the Secret Science black and white pages.  Naked Eggs - which I have to admit to having bought this week - is a really pretty book that takes a number of familiar demonstrations - all safe for home performance - and makes them a little flashier, a little more attractive.

If Spangler is making a move to be the nation's new science guy, he's going to have to get a more regular television presence than appearances on Ellen and other talk shows, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw him making appearances on his own show fairly soon.

In honor of...#7...

If ever there was a science guy who has used the medium of television (and more recently the magical interweb) to promote both himself and science, that science guy would have to be Steve Spangler.

Spangler was a classroom teacher for a dozen years but has now moved on to be the Director of the National Hands-on Science Institute in Denver and a consultant for the Littleton Public Schools near Denver.

And he is the current media scientist darling, and rightfully so.

Spangler's media savvy and affable personality - as well as his regular appearances on local morning shows and national network shows - has sent him into a decent amount of fame, particularly among the science teacher community. Spangler has even begun to parlay that into marketing science products in his name.

Spangler maintains a blog where he points out interesting science things, though the blog isn't all that interesting as he knows he's fully in the public eye. Luckily that same website has a large repository of experiments from Steve...

Snacks4theBrain! 51 - weird vocal science...


Gravity Defied Goo Video...


His mentos & diet coke compilation...


From Donald Duck to Barry White...

Hydrogen and Oxygen...

Pop Rocks science...

Make Your Own Bubbling Lava Lamp...

Bernouli's Principle...

Instant Worms...

Go check out more yourself...

More star-spanglered science

Every year, at least once, I get asked why helium makes your voice higher. It's been something that I probably should have explored and done some research on, but I never got around to it. Luckily I stumbled upon the above video that not only does a great job explaining things but also takes the marvelous extra step of having an assistant suck down a little sulfur hexafluoride to show off the opposite effect.

The main guy in the video is Steve Spangler whose blog reads like an excellent primer on, most prominantly, the Mentos & Diet Coke eruptions. The blog also has lots of interesting entries detailing Spangler's clear skills in and love for showing the coolness of science.

You can also see Spangler demonstrating insta-snow. Both of these videos come to us thanks to Snacks4TheBrain, yet another cool science blog.

Still no luck, though, in hunting down that video for the iodine clock demo timed out to the 1812 overture. If anybody can help me out there, I'd be much obliged.

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.

Amazing science...

 

Steve Spangler science strikes again...

Update; Spanglerific

More Steve Spangler...the man is a hell of a pitchman, he really is...

Check his new product -the Mentos Soda Geyser Car...