Steve Spangler (born December 8, 1966) is an American television personality, author and science teacher.
Spangler founded Steve Spangler Science and its wholesale division, Be Amazing Toys.
[Julia Ann Charpentie]
Steve Spangler Science Has the Magic Touch
Retrieved January 5, 2007. He served as
CEO of Steve Spangler Science and the creative director of Be Amazing Toys.
[ Both companies develop science education teaching tools and toys.][ Spangler posted the first Diet Coke and Mentos video on YouTube in September 2005 and his 2002 televised demonstration of the eruption went viral launching a chain of several other Diet Coke and Mentos experiment viral videos.] He earned two Heartland Emmy Awards and a total of five Emmy nominations. Spangler holds a Guinness World Record for the largest physics lesson and is an inductee of the National Speakers Association
The National Speakers Association (NSA) is a US based association that supports motivational and other public speakers. It is the oldest and largest of 13 international associations comprising the Global Speakers Federation.
History
NSA was f ...
Speaker Hall of Fame.
Career
Education work
Spangler's career began as a science teacher in the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado.[ As part of a science outreach program, Spangler created a traveling science show targeted to elementary and middle school students in an effort to increase interest in science. In 1991, Spangler began traveling throughout Colorado and the surrounding states to present school assembly programs and teacher training workshops focused on using more inquiry-based science activities in the classroom.
Spangler presented over 4,500 science shows for students and teachers at approximately 900 schools throughout the U.S. from 1991-2003 when the tour ended.][
In 1992, Spangler began working as an adjunct faculty member at the Regis University in the Department of Chemistry.] He served as the Executive Director of the National Hands-on Science Institute until 2001.[ The institute combined professional development for elementary and middle school teachers with an authentic lab experience for teachers to test out best practices and hands-on learning strategies with Denver-area children who attended an afternoon science camp.][
Spangler hosts several summer science institutes as professional development science educators. Science in the Rockies offers strategies and best practices for increasing hands-on engagement in the classroom. In 2009, Spangler partnered with Holland America Cruise Line to offer an environmental science curriculum exploring the inside passage of Alaska.
]
Television work
During his first year of teaching, a producer from the Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
affiliate KCNC-TV
KCNC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios on Lincoln Street (between ...
offered Spangler a position as a science host on News for Kids[ after seeing him perform a science demonstration show at a public event.][ News for Kids premiered in 1991 and was picked up for national syndication in 1993, airing in 185 cities every Saturday morning.][ After six seasons, Spangler produced 220 segments that featured simple science experiments that viewers could easily recreate at home. Spangler received a Heartland Emmy Award for his work on News for Kids in 1997.][
In 2001, Spangler joined the Denver NBC affiliate, KUSA-TV 9NEWS as their Science Education Contributor. His weekly science segments feature science demonstrations and experiments that encourage viewers to learn more about science. ]Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
affiliate, KUSA-TV 9News.[Al Lewi]
Mentos-soda mix a mint for scientist
Retrieved January 2, 2007.
Spangler has also been featured on Food Network
Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...
, Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...
, HGTV, ''NBC Nightly News
''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NB ...
'', History Channel
History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
, ''Today Show
''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...
'', ''Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
'', The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecas ...
, VH1, QVC
QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network, and flagship shopping channel specializing in televised home shopping, owned by Qurate Retail Group. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Chester, Pen ...
, ''Modern Marvels
''Modern Marvels'' is an American worldwide television series that formerly aired on the History Channel and is currently shown on Story Television. The program focuses on how technologies affect and are used in modern society. It is History's ...
'', '' The Doctors'' and DIY.[
The ]Diet Coke and Mentos eruption
A Diet Coke and Mentos eruption (also known as a soda geyser) is a reaction between the carbonated beverage Diet Coke and Mentos mints that causes the beverage to be expelled from its container. The candies catalyze the release of gas from the ...
experiment was first televised by Spangler in 2002 and became popular on the Internet in 2005.[ More than a thousand videos appeared online replicating the experiment.][ Spangler was nominated for the '']Time 100
''Time'' 100 (often stylized as ''TIME'' 100) is an annual listicle of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, ...
'' in 2007 because of the experiment.[ He signed a licensing agreement with ]Perfetti Van Melle
Perfetti Van Melle is an Italian-Dutch multinational company of confectionery and gum, It was formed in 2001 with the merger of the Perfetti of Italy, and the Van Melle of the Netherlands. Perfetti Van Melle is headquartered in Lainate, Italy, a ...
, the maker of MENTOS, in 2006 and developed a line of toys to be used with the experiment.[
Spangler made his first appearance on '']the Ellen DeGeneres Show
''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was prod ...
'' in 2007. One of his show demonstrations, Walking on Water, consisted of mixing 2,500 pounds of cornstarch and 500 gallons of water into a large container to create a Non-Newtonian fluid
A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid that does not follow Newton's law of viscosity, i.e., constant viscosity independent of stress. In non-Newtonian fluids, viscosity can change when under force to either more liquid or more solid. Ketchup, for ex ...
.
Other work
Spangler founded Steve Spangler Science and Be Amazing Toys, the wholesale division of Steve Spangler Science.[ Steve served as the CEO of Steve Spangler Science until 2018 when the company was sold to Really Good Stuff, LLC, a division of Excelligence Learning Corporation.
Spangler is the author of seven books: ''Down to a Science'', ''Taming the Tornado Tube'', ''Bounce No Bounce'', ''Fizz Factor'', ''Secret Science'', ''Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes'', ''Fire Bubbles and Exploding Toothpaste''.][
Spangler is also known for the Sick Science! YouTube channel, which received 170M views by 2020. The channel contains instructional videos on simple at home or classroom science experiments. He also runs a ]TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version ...
account which has been verified and has amassed more than 1.2M followers and 16.5M likes as of November 19, 2020.
Awards
Spangler received a Heartland Emmy Award in 1997 for his contribution the television program News for Kids. In 2010, he received a Heartland Emmy Award for Spangler Science - Weather and Science Day at Coors Field.[ Spangler also received a Guinness World Record for the largest physics lesso]
Spangler was inducted into the National Speakers Association, National Speakers Association's Speaker Hall of Fame in 2010.
In October 2011, Spangler was selected as one of 100 initial partners[YouTube Announces TV Initiative With 100 Niche Channels]
Retrieved November 21, 2012 for the YouTube Original Channel Initiative
The YouTube Original Channel Initiative was a $100 million program funded by Google to bring original content onto Google. The original channel initiative was also meant to kick start Google TV. The channels are collectively known as "original", " ...
and received funding for the production of new original programming. Spangler's YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
show, The Spangler Effect, debuted February 1, 2012.
Personal life
Steve Spangler was born on December 8, 1966 in Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
. He graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...
with a dual degree in chemistry and humanities in 1989. Spangler has three sons.
References
External links
Steve Spangler
Steve Spangler Science
*
Video experiments on 9News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spangler, Steve
Living people
American chief executives
Emmy Award winners
1966 births
American scientists