SESSION TYPE: Featured Speaker SESSION TITLE: Exploding Soda & Flying Potatoes: How to Create Unforgettable Learning Experiences STRAND: STEM DAY: Friday TIME: 11:15 - 12:15 pm LOCATION: Mercury Ballroom, 3rd floor

It’s true… not all teachers are created equal. There are good teachers and then there are truly great teachers. Understanding the differences in teaching styles is the key to learning how to turn ordinary moments into unforgettable learning experiences – the kind that kids talk about at the dinner table and remember for a lifetime. The secret to becoming the best teacher possible is to learn how to engage students on a whole new level using creative methods that promote wonder and exploration. Steve Spangler combines his experience as a science teacher and an award-winning toy designer to create educational experiences that make learning fun… and spread like a virus. Guaranteed fun… just watch out for the flying potatoes.

BIOGRAPHY

Steve Spangler finds the most creative ways to make learning fun. This Emmy award-winning
journalist, teacher and toy designer teaches people how to create unforgettable learning experiences that spread like a virus. He’s been described as the guy who shoots potatoes, makes toilet paper fly and mixes up a perfect batch of slime. But he may be best known for teaching millions of people how
to turn an ordinary bottle of soda into an erupting geyser of fun. His now famous Mentos Geyser Experiment became an Internet sensation in September of 2005 and spawned more than a thousand related exploding soda experiments on videos sites like YouTube.com

Spangler started his career as a science teacher in the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado. 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 15 years, he has also made more than 500 television appearances as an authority on hands-on science and inquiry-based learning. The Denver-based science teacher and local television personality continues to make Ellen DeGeneres laugh with his clever science demos. During his past appearances, Steve
shocked Ellen with 50,000 volts of electricity, shot giant rings of smoke at audience members and filled her studio with 2,500 boxes of cornstarch for the now famous Cornstarch Water Walk experiment… and he’s been invited back for next season.

For more information about Steve Spangler, visit his blog at www.SteveSpangler.com
and his on-line business at www.SteveSpanglerScience.com