The business of Steve Spangler Science

Steve Spangler Science – Educational Products

A new team of FedEx drivers showed up at the loading dock and asked “So, what does Steve Spangler Science do?” Luckily for him, Steve was just around the corner working on his Exploding Pumpkin demo. It’s funny how one simple question could change the way the inquisitive FedEx driver viewed science for the rest of his life. Yes, the pumpkin exploded. Yes, the FedEx guy pulled the trigger. No, no one went to the hospital.

Those FedEx drivers have seen lots of weird things. Giant smoke rings, flying potatoes, hair-raising static electricity generators, or a television reporter sitting in the middle of a huge pool of green slime. Now, there was the time that Steve actually put the new FedEx guy in a giant bubble in an effort to test out a new bubble solution recipe.

All in the name of education!

Our Mission

It took 12 years for us to finally figure out what we do here at Steve Spangler Science. For many years, we thought that we were in the business of selling science supplies, kits, gizmos, and twirling things that made weird noises. We recently made a discovery that changed our entire way of thinking.

While exhibiting at a recent conference in Houston, a teacher walked up to the booth and said, “Thanks for teaching me how to be AMAZING! Your products have inspired me to do more science this year with my kids and they think that I’m amazing. You’ve changed the way I teach. Thanks.” After the shock wore off, it hit us like a ton of bricks. This teacher captured the essence of what we do at Steve Spangler Science. We teach people to be amazing by providing them with products and innovations that are educational, entertaining, and inspire the imagination.

Welcome to our on-line catalog filled with hundreds of products that teach you to be amazing.

Play with a Purpose

Play time is an important part of our daily experience at Steve Spangler Science. All of the activities and kits on our website are teacher-developed and kid-tested. How do we do this? Our team of Spangler Science Ambassadors have the unique pleasure of visiting some 65,000 students in 120 schools each year to share the activities featured on this website. During our school visits, we want to find out these things:

• Did the product grab the students’ attention and make them ask questions on their own?
• How did the teacher evaluate the overall effectiveness of the learning experience.

The materials featured on this site were selected because of their effectiveness in the classroom and their impact on students who are trying to make sense out of science. If it’s offered on this website, we’ve used it in the classroom.

Our Commitment

To provide customers with innovative hands-on activities, captivating demonstrations, hard-to-find supplies, and creative learning tools that teach people to be amazing.

Who is Steve Spangler?

Steve Spangler is a teacher, science toy designer, speaker, author and an Emmy award-winning television personality. Spangler is probably best known for his Mentos and Diet Coke geyser experiment that went viral in 2005 and prompted more than 1,000 related YouTube videos. Spangler is the founder of SteveSpanglerScience.com, a Denver-based company specializing in the creation of science toys, classroom science demonstrations, teacher resources and home for Spangler’s popular science experiment archive and video collection. Spangler is a frequent guest on the Ellen DeGeneres Show where he takes classroom science experiments to the extreme. Check out his pool filled with 2,500 boxes of cornstarch!

Oh, by the way, he also holds a Guinness World Record for the Largest Science Lesson. Over 5,000 people doing a hands-on science demonstration all at the same time. Check it out.

On the education side, Spangler started his career as a science teacher in the Cherry Creek School district for 12 years. Today, Steve travels extensively training teachers in ways to make learning more engaging and fun. His hands-on science boot camps and summer institutes for teachers inspire and teach teachers how to prepare a new generation for an ever-changing work force. Over the last 20 years, he has also made hundreds of television appearances as an authority on hands-on science and inquiry-based learning.

As founder of SteveSpanglerScience.com, Spangler and his design team have developed more than 140 educational toys and science-related products featured by mass-market retailers like Target, Wal-Mart, Toys R’ Us, Discovery Channel Stores and over 1,400 independent specialty toy stores. His educational science catalog and on-line business offers more than a thousand science toys and unique learning resources. Recently, Spangler has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, WIRED, the History Channel, Food Network and TIME Magazine where on-line readers voted Steve Spangler #18 in the Top 100 Most Influential People of the Year for 2006.

His recent appearances on the Ellen DeGeneres Show have taught viewers how to blow up their food, shock their friends, create mountains of foam, play on a bed of nails, vanish in a cloud of smoke and how to turn 2,500 boxes of cornstarch and a garden hose into a swimming pool of fun… and he’s been invited back for yet another season… go figure.