On this episode of the Innovative Schools podcast, the last of this season, we're in Orlando at the Innovative Schools Summit, and we're gonna be sitting down with Steve Spangler to talk about that connection to make with students and how to build experiences with them. Come on. Let's learn together. Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Innovative Schools podcast.
Jordan Bassett:I am Jordan. This is the last episode of this season. We're excited to have completed it. I haven't introduced you yet. You can't start talking.
Steve Spangler:Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Jordan Bassett:Gosh, Steve.
Steve Spangler:Okay.
Jordan Bassett:We have Steve Spangler with us. Now you can talk.
Steve Spangler:There you go. It's that's my cue along the way. You're supposed to go, now light the thing on fire. Light your wallet on fire, and then do this. We don't have to do any of that stuff.
Steve Spangler:All we get to do is to sit and to talk, which is kinda nice. And I'm dressed this way, and you're dressed this way. I just came off stage.
Jordan Bassett:You did just come off stage at the Innovative Schools Summit, which was a fantastic session that I got to be a part of. I was on stage for a minute taking some pictures.
Steve Spangler:Because the whole room erupted in these bags. We had these wind bags
Jordan Bassett:Yes.
Steve Spangler:Eight feet long. And they and and and we tried to get 1,800 of them all inflated in under ten seconds. Yeah. And they used Bernoulli's principle to do it, and it's pretty cool.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. It it is it is really neat. It's always it's so fun watching you present because you don't just I mean, you talk about this. You don't just say, oh, here's all the Bernoulli's principle and everything like that, but you are leading people down a journey of learning and seeing not just, you know, you you you kind of rig it a little bit. Like, with the bags, you have you pinch the bag closed, you tell them to blow into it, and then you get up there and you say, I can do it in one breath.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. And you you get it, but you've led them down this journey of you teach how to teach while you're teaching. Does that make sense?
Steve Spangler:It does make sense. And I thought about it. If you are going to teach people about creating experiences, but all you have is five points in a poem, and people are just looking at their phone, you're like, well, so how about they get to be a part of an experience? And if you tee them up and go, All right, everybody, now it's time for us to be part of an experience, and so pretend That doesn't work, because people are like, Stop. But if all of a sudden The greatest teachers I've ever had are the ones that you get so entranced that you lose track of everything, and then you go, Oh my gosh, I'm part of your little experience right now.
Steve Spangler:Right? So they create something for you that's so special. And so, I mean, everything I've learned, I've learned from other teachers. I'm a really good observer. And you just look at it you say, so how do you do it?
Steve Spangler:How did you make this happen? And you try to capitalize on that and build some connections and just make it better for the students. Because ultimately, it's all about those students. But my job right now, almost 100% people think, because of TikTok and everything else, that I do stuff for kids. I don't do anything for kids, really, other than I'm still allowed I work for the Littleton Public Schools in Littleton, Colorado.
Steve Spangler:And for the last twenty five years, they've been kind enough to let me kick open a door a couple times a month Every
Jordan Bassett:once in a
Steve Spangler:while. Work on material. Because if I'm not with kids, then I think I lose my edge. But 99% of my work is in professional development with teachers.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Steve Spangler:It's not fair to them to say, I'm gonna bring you something that I haven't tested yet. So I wanna show them stuff that I've tried, didn't work, tried it again, reworked it, and now I'm bringing it to you and saying, now make it better.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. So you I have a question then because you're talking about kind of observing and what people do differently and bringing that in. Was there is there a specific educator or person when like, that light bulb moment for you, were you who were you looking at when you said, wow. This is they're really doing something that I wanna start incorporating into what I do as an educator, what you do in in all the work that you do?
Steve Spangler:I'll try to give it to you in three little chunks. Alright? Okay. So you can kinda so I just have to say, when I was in kindergarten so I grew up in a so I'll pull the curtain back a little bit. Maybe that's good, maybe it's not.
Steve Spangler:I grew up in a family of professional magicians.
Jordan Bassett:Okay. It explains a lot.
Steve Spangler:See? And and so some people don't like it. Some people are like, I get it. You're just doing shtick. It's not it at all.
Steve Spangler:My dad So the joke is, what's the difference between a magician and a pizza? And the answer is a pizza can feed a family of five. So dad had a real job, but I didn't realize When you're a kid, you don't realize that your dad's kind of a big deal. So there's these big name magicians back in the seventies and early eighties that would show up at the house. This one guy, I'm trying to remember his name.
Steve Spangler:Oh, yeah. David Copperfield. He was a young kid. Kid working on his television special. Mhmm.
Steve Spangler:Come in and ask him magicians for some help along the way. Yeah. And so I grew up in that world. My dad ran a magic school, so it makes sense for the firewall and whatever But what I can tell you is while I was classically trained as a magician, worked my way through college as a magician, I love doing magic. What I learned from doing magic is presentation.
Steve Spangler:What I learned about magic is building a connection because any magician that's worth his or her salt has to work restaurants. And when you work a restaurant, it's the worst gig in the world because people don't want you at their table. They just want to eat their meal. They don't want some guy going, Hey, want to see a card trick? So you have to learn to approach.
Steve Spangler:You got to learn to because you're getting paid by the manager to work. And so you got to learn to approach, you got to learn to create the experience, you got to learn to give some room. And so the thing I ever learned So when I'd go to kindergarten, show and tell was not just show and tell, it was showtime. And my dad, we would practice showtime.
Jordan Bassett:So Here's your three minutes.
Steve Spangler:You got it. Yeah, and the lights on and do your three minutes or So I learned. And so it's so funny, Mrs. Carden, who was my kindergarten teacher, what's so funny is that she made the mistake of going, Why don't we all go around the room and tell what our parents do? And so I go, Well, my dad eats fire.
Steve Spangler:And you could see every kid go, What? And you could see some kids going, That's not true. And so back in 1975, nobody cared, so dad came to show and tell and lit up the torches, ate fire right in front. And when your dad eats fire, I don't care what what your dad does, mine always waits.
Jordan Bassett:Your dad's the coolest dad
Steve Spangler:in school. Because eats fire, cuts my mom into three pieces. It all came out in counseling later on. So but missus Cardin learned how to grab on to that and and learned to go, what is that all about? And so she started to play off of those experiences going, what do you know about this?
Steve Spangler:So I mean, she didn't say, one day, boys and girls were learning about air. She just put a pile of potatoes out one time and had straws. And she goes, could you guys put the straws through the potato? They'll look like porcupines. Bring them to me when you're done.
Steve Spangler:Well, of course it doesn't work. But she got ahold of Kathy Denton, and how she taught Kathy, have no idea. But if you put your thumb over the end of the straw and jam it through the potato, remembering that brown is a potato and pale pink is me, and it goes all the way through, every kid in that class is like, Hey, how did you do And she made Kathy the rock star. Teacher number one. Right?
Steve Spangler:Teacher number two. I'm sitting in I didn't get a science fair. We had no science experiments growing up when I was in elementary school. When I got to grade, there was a guy. That He was like, you could go to this guy, Mr.
Steve Spangler:London, always wore a suit every day and whatever, but he made a volcano. And he made a volcano not with vinegar and baking soda. He's using carcinogenic stuff. And the stuff comes out and no, and there's soup coming down and whatever, and he burned a whole, not through the table, but there's a burn mark in the And every kid wanted to be at the desk that had the burn mark. I thought, how cool is that?
Steve Spangler:He made a volcano. And what I was learning was, he created an experience. He didn't think he was probably creating an but I I told people how old I'm 58 now, and I'm telling people about when I was in grade. Then when I got to high school in Littleton Public Schools, I had a there was a chemistry teacher, and I had I didn't have him for that chemistry class. But I could hear through the wall all the stuff going on, and then there's a big explosion or whatever.
Steve Spangler:And friends of mine who knew that I did magic or whatever, they're like, you gotta take this mister Hodus's class. He's this Hodus guy is great. And Hodus so stick with me. He Hodus had this thing. He would ask a kid.
Steve Spangler:He'd go, back in the day when you had juicy fruit? Mhmm. Remember? No. You're too young.
Steve Spangler:Know?
Jordan Bassett:I do remember juicy.
Steve Spangler:I do. Yeah. Had yeah. And it had foil on it. You know the foil?
Steve Spangler:Yes. That's very important. So he would take a kid, and he'd go
Jordan Bassett:They had Anybody got gum? Eight
Steve Spangler:seconds. Yes. Yeah. Seconds. Yes.
Steve Spangler:Yeah. Know the stuff. And he'd go anybody got gum? And so you take out that spearmint, whatever, or Wigglies or whatever, and it had to have the foil, and he'd go, alright. Ready?
Steve Spangler:Take it take the take the the foil wrapper, put it in your mouth. And so a kid would put it in his say, get it wet with your tongue, and then he'd say, fold it up. And so he would take it from your hand. He'd fold it up, and he'd say, hold it in your hand, and you would hold it in your hand, and he'd go concentrate. I can make it hot.
Steve Spangler:And you're like, that's baloney. And all of a sudden, it got so hot in your hand, it would burn your hand. And you would think, is that a mind trick or what? It wasn't. It got hot.
Steve Spangler:And he protected that secret for twenty some years until this kid came on the scene. Uh-huh. That's a magic trick. Mhmm. Years ago, when I was I had learned that gypsies would do it or fake mentalists would do it.
Steve Spangler:They would say, I can control your mind and take the evilness out of your body. It was all baloney. Yeah. So it was a chemical. And this little chemical, he would dip his thumb in this little chemical underneath his desk, and he would load it up.
Steve Spangler:And so
Jordan Bassett:foil as he's
Steve Spangler:filling up and putting Yeah. So my I went home and I told my dad, I go, some guy at school, he's doing hypno heat. And he goes, well, you gotta show him. Right? And I go, yeah.
Steve Spangler:So we're walking down the hallway. I go, mister Otis, can I see? He goes, no. I can't and I go, watch this. I open up my Trapper Keeper.
Steve Spangler:That's how old I am. And I get out that piece of aluminum foil. I had a little piece this way. I go, watch this. They they and I just put it in his hand, and it started to get hot.
Steve Spangler:And he's like, get over here. So he drags me into a room, and we shut the door, and there's nobody in there. He goes, who are you? I go, I'm gonna take your class next year, AP chemistry. He goes, who are you?
Steve Spangler:I'm Steve Spangler. He goes, how do you know how to do that? I go, grew up in a family of magicians. He goes, don't tell anybody how I do. He says, it has been my guarded secret.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Steve Spangler:Guess what? Presentation. Long story short, he's the one who introduced me to Renee, my wife. Made I I came to him and said, I wanna do a science show for kids. And we I had a little traveling science show when I was a senior in high school.
Steve Spangler:And he said, you're gonna need a partner. And I go, I already got a partner. He goes, you don't have the partner. He says, you need this person. He goes, remember, it's a different time.
Steve Spangler:He goes, do you see what did he say? You see the attractive blonde who transferred into AP chem from bio hour? And I go, no. And he goes, stop by hour. Please remember it.
Steve Spangler:It's a different time, you know, before you get all crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So two creepy peep well, one creepy guy and Steve's and I'm in the beginning, he goes, she's gonna be your helper. And I went, there's no way.
Steve Spangler:I said, I've never talked to her before, but that's captain of the varsity soccer team. She was National Honor Society, the whole thing. He goes, you're gonna ask her. And I go, I'm not. He goes, I command you.
Steve Spangler:And I did. And she said, Yes. And here we are doing a little science show. Who would have ever known that we would go to college together? And then we'd get married and we'd start Steve Spangler Science, and that was thirty five years ago.
Jordan Bassett:And here you are now.
Steve Spangler:And he knew what he was doing. It wasn't about just I mean, it was about chemistry. Right? He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew I was supposed to be a teacher.
Steve Spangler:I pushed him on it too. I go, I'm gonna be an ophthalmologist. And he goes, right. You're gonna be a teacher. And he knew.
Steve Spangler:So from beginning to end, here's somebody who knew the art of crafting experiences. He gave me just enough leash to do my own thing, make it feel like it was mine. Yeah. But isn't it amazing when you see a kid's spark? Peter Benson from Minnesota, he's passed away, but he was with Search Institute.
Steve Spangler:He said kids every kid needs three things. Number one needs a spark. Find their spark. Well, that's next to impossible. There's people running around the world that still haven't found their spark.
Steve Spangler:Right? They need a champion. So somebody will champion the cause, and it can never be parents because parents will course correct.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Steve Spangler:So a kid can go, my spark is theater, and I think I wanna go to school for theater. And the parents go, that's great, but you're gonna get an accounting degree. That's called course correction, and then you need somebody to support the cause. That's where the parents come in. It's that threesome, that bam, bam, bam.
Steve Spangler:Peter Benson was super smart. Doug Hodis knew my spark.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Steve Spangler:That's and there's I was just in a room with 1,800 teachers, and they have that skill. It's just every times every once in a while, some guy like me has to go, remember the skill that you have? Yeah. Do that again.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. It sound what we were talking before we were recording about experiences. It sound you've just shared kinda three experiences.
Steve Spangler:Yeah.
Jordan Bassett:But what's I don't know. Like, what do you think set those experiences apart? What did those teachers do for you? Yeah. And what what what would you boil down to, like, the things that teachers today, an educator listening, as they're entering into summer, for them to think about of how to create that same spark and things through what they're doing with their students?
Steve Spangler:thing I have to say is that we're constantly learning. So anybody who thinks that they've got this down, they've got the answer, I think they're wrong. So because I've been doing this now for thirty years. And I was in Florence, Alabama with my wife. I know a lot of people are going, oh, you were in Florence.
Steve Spangler:You were going to drop that one on us? I was in Florence, Alabama, and it wasn't that long ago, speaking for federal educators, federal education program administrators. And, I travel a lot. So I carry so if I smell like lighter fluid, it's because here's the deal. Every day I wake up
Jordan Bassett:How does TSA feel about this?
Steve Spangler:That's a different podcast at a different time. Every day I wake up, every day I put lighter fluid in this side of my wallet. I've carried this wallet for thirty five years. I put the lighter fluid on this side, and I put a little bit of money on this side. And I don't know if I'm gonna use it that day or not, but if we get close together and I smell like lighter fluid, you know.
Steve Spangler:And so, check into a lot of hotels, And so I always like to go, Hey, I was checking for Steve Spangler. Here's the titanium number. Do you have anything close to a fire escape or whatever? And so I think that's funny and they think it's funny or whatever. I usually get a like that.
Steve Spangler:So I check-in, I do my thing, light the wallet up, and the person behind the desk goes, I don't know. I'll check and see. She turns around and does that thing, I thought, that's kind of weird, wasn't it? That's okay. So I put it back in there, Then we grab our key and whatever, and we're working our way down, and there's coffee.
Steve Spangler:I love coffee. And so I was like, let's go do the thing. So I got a line for the coffee person. It's like the barista, do have something extra hot, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah, I got nothing. She was and I looked at Renee and I said my wife Renee.
Steve Spangler:And I said, it's gonna be a tough gig because I've I've never been to Florence before, but they're not they're not like, I don't think they like to engage. And she's so smart. She goes, no. It's you. You didn't let them connect.
Steve Spangler:You didn't breathe room into what you're doing. You were performing for them instead of with them. And I think that and I'm a seasoned teacher, and I've been doing this for a long time. But isn't it funny you get into a routine and and I didn't couch it in such a way they thought that maybe I was making fun of them or maybe I was trying to pull one over on them. And what I needed to do is craft it in just a little bit different way to go, hey, I understand this is the greatest hotel in the world to be at.
Steve Spangler:How long you've been you know, I didn't connect I didn't open that up before I just fired up my wallet. And then it kind of like, well, who are you? And I think the same thing happens in education. Sometimes we get so excited about the experience, we come in hot. We need to come in just a little different way and give them a chance to breathe.
Steve Spangler:And what I'm saying is every group is different. Every group of children are different. Every person is different. And so it's not our experience. It's their experience, and we have to share it.
Jordan Bassett:I think that's a really good distinction.
Steve Spangler:And I'm still learning how to do that. And sometimes it takes a smart person like your spouse to go, hey, Sparky. It's you. Mhmm. It ain't them.
Steve Spangler:It's you.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. You have we wrote down a
Steve Spangler:smell like lighter fluid.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. I was just starting to get a little whip of it. I
Steve Spangler:don't know. That's how I am.
Jordan Bassett:To go along with that is a a quote that we have from one of your previous presentations that we saw. It says, teaching is about connection and foremost. If you don't have that, nothing else matters.
Steve Spangler:I think you're right. Well, I'm impressed that you would write down any quote that I said. So that's very, very good. So that's the I think you're right. It ties into exactly what we were talking That's a privilege.
Steve Spangler:When a student connects with you, what does that really mean? They share something. And so we create these experiences that give them the opportunity to go, let me try that. Let me But there's still a little, I'm not sure if I want to do this. Once they connect, it's almost like they want to share something with you.
Steve Spangler:During COVID, I don't know if you remember COVID, there was I was, yes. Yeah, we wore masks. Stupidest thing ever. We stood six feet apart, nothing in the science that said but that's another thing in another Another podcast. So we were into May of COVID, and I didn't know, April probably, and I didn't know what else to do.
Steve Spangler:Everybody's on lockdown. We're only gonna be out of school for two weeks, so whatever. So we're into the week, and I just remember opening up the laptop going, we got a lot of people that follow us on Facebook. That seemed to be a good place where teachers connect at the time. TikTok for us was brand new at that point.
Steve Spangler:So I decided for Facebook and said, you know what? I've made a little announcement that said on Wednesday at 01:00, I'm gonna do a little program that'll show you some things that you can do at home with your kids. And teachers, if you're watching that you could do if you happen to be doing this online. And that week, I think we had two fifty people or so. And the next week we had 45,000.
Steve Spangler:And it blew up. Why? Because people are like, well, we need this. And the public's like, well, we can connect. I mean, the kids are going through all this material and so One thing led to another, and somebody put a snarky comment online going, this is all well and good, but my kid's going to miss STEM camp this summer.
Steve Spangler:Can't do STEM camp online. I thought
Jordan Bassett:You saw that as a challenge,
Steve Spangler:didn't you? Yeah. Because I was just I am tired of snarky people doing their because they can hide behind, you know, the online stuff. And we had sold Steve Spangler Science. So the company that my wife and I created, we sold that in 2018 to the people who own really good stuff and discount schools apply.
Steve Spangler:Intelligence Learning is the name. And so I approached them and I just said, if I asked you to put a box of stuff together, could you do that? Because I figured I gotta learn Zoom. I've been doing TV professionally for thirty years, but I've never done this thing where there's these little boxes of human beings that are trapped in there. And my job is to humanize the square.
Steve Spangler:It was a term that Carly kinda came up with, to humanize the square. Carly's been my manager, my agent, everything for now over twenty years. So the idea she's like, well, why don't we offer a STEM camp? And so we did. On one of those days, we went, hey, it's STEM camp time.
Steve Spangler:And if you want to have a STEM if you want to be a part of this, could take the thirty. And the people at Steve's Bankerscience I don't own anymore went, yeah, we'll do the boxes. Carly comes running up the stairs and looks at me in our live thing going, it's sold out. Do another one. I mean and we're doing another session at 10:30.
Steve Spangler:She goes, like
Jordan Bassett:it up as you're going.
Steve Spangler:Abs and she goes, afternoon. We'll do a one and we'll do a three. I figured, well, that week will at least help me understand five solid weeks.
Jordan Bassett:Wow.
Steve Spangler:So where I'm going with it is this. There are these human beings that were trapped in these little squares, and I learned more about engagement than you could ever imagine. And and what I noticed was this. Some kids would connect, some would not. There's so many stories to tell you, but this little girl that just it gets me.
Steve Spangler:I could not connect, man. I am telling you, I tried as hard as I could. Monday, I couldn't she just wouldn't talk. I'd go to her and go, hey. Tell me and she'd nothing at all.
Steve Spangler:Tuesday, Wednesday. We there was a dog that was in our little studio, and and his name was Frank. And Frank was a lab. It was a 120 pounds. Wow.
Steve Spangler:And and the he came walking behind me one time in those three days, and you could see all the kids in the square leaning
Jordan Bassett:like Looking at the dog. I'm like, yeah.
Steve Spangler:What are you guys doing? I go, oh, it's Frank. I forgot to tell you. It's bring your dog to STEM camp day. Just made up.
Steve Spangler:And so reached up. So you should bring your your animal to STEM camp day because tomorrow is bring your favorite pet to STEM camp. So guess what happens? We had everything from dogs, cats, iguanas, hamsters, fish, whatever it was. This little girl was in the Zoom room way before we even started.
Steve Spangler:Could yeah. I mean, logged in. We're just waiting. Yeah. As soon as we came in, she was there with her dog and she wouldn't stop talking.
Steve Spangler:Just blah, blah, blah. And guess what? And the energy stick, and when I touch it on its nose, that's a PETA violation probably. And when we do this and this and this, and she came out of her shell because guess what? That was the connector that we needed.
Steve Spangler:And every teacher who's listening is like, I know that. I know how that works.
Jordan Bassett:You find that one point.
Steve Spangler:That one thing. How would I have ever guessed? You can't write that in a book. Mm-mm. Can't do that's just teacher instinct and feeling.
Steve Spangler:And when you see it happen, you go, oh, that's And and that was the connector that to humanize it. That's what she need. She needed to see I had a dog. Yeah. She likes dogs.
Jordan Bassett:Nice. Connection.
Steve Spangler:So, you know, it's You know, as a teacher, I never thought that I was an emotional sappy guy, but I think of things like this and I go, I wish I would have known that for so many years before because I would have been such a better teacher. Yeah. But if at least I can share the stories with teachers today, especially young ones.
Jordan Bassett:It help other people farther along get
Steve Spangler:I love it. I love this conference because I see teachers who are just fresh, man, and you can tell. They're just like, they're walking through the vendors. They take everything, you know, because that's Do you have this? Yeah.
Steve Spangler:I'll take that. And they take it all. They're excited, and they don't know what they don't know yet. And then I love seasoned teachers who are sitting there looking at it going, Been teaching for twenty two years. Why are you here?
Steve Spangler:I need to find my why. I missed. I forgot it. I had just talked to a teacher in line who said, I was ready to wrap this up. How many years?
Steve Spangler:Seventeen. I go, you can't wrap up. Seventeen, your retirement and everything else? Yeah. I just wasn't happy.
Steve Spangler:And isn't it funny that for some reason, the universe brought her here Mhmm. And just said, what about what do you think about this? And nobody pounding at her. This is why you stay here. It's five points why you should stay.
Steve Spangler:She's just walking through trying to figure out, do I still wanna do this in my life? And she goes, I think I'm at the right place. That's all she could say without tearing up.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. You were we were talking another thing we were talking about beforehand was as you give these big presentations, you come, and you do book signings, or you're talking to people. And people just start opening up to you, these educators, seventeen years, doing whatever, you know, they're maybe lost or they're new, and they're like, oh, or maybe a little starstruck not to puff your ego.
Steve Spangler:No. Well, that's nice. But isn't it nice that they want more than the signature in the book? They're not asking for the
Jordan Bassett:signature It's not just sign and go on.
Steve Spangler:The nicest thing is people
Jordan Bassett:can do. That's
Steve Spangler:it. They want to take home a piece of what they just saw in there, because for some reason, something resonated with them. I truly think that we buy books, and some people read them. I mean, go through the whole thing. But I think some of it is, I just wanna connect with that person.
Steve Spangler:So when I go through and I find a little something there, it's that memory of going, Oh, you remember we took a and just spoke? And I learned pretty early on, and Carly was great in teaching me this, that when that line appears, it doesn't matter how long that is, stay for all of them. And it's more than signing the book. You ask them, Where are you from? What do you do?
Steve Spangler:How did you get here? How did you find ISS? Because you wanna know something about them. Because in doing so, you're gonna find out something else. And many of them wanna share, you know?
Steve Spangler:And to have somebody, especially, not to be sexist, it's not that way, but to see a guy, a big burly guy who was standing in line there, a football coach, it looked like, tears in his eyes. And all he wanted to do, he just went, Just wanted to say thanks. Yeah. And that was it. Have fun.
Steve Spangler:Mhmm. Just all he wanted to do was connect just to say thanks. He waited through that entire line. Didn't even buy a book. Didn't want a book.
Steve Spangler:Didn't want a picture.
Jordan Bassett:Just wanted to say
Steve Spangler:connect and just go, wanted to say thanks. And I couldn't say for what because he wasn't at that point, and I don't think I would have been either. But isn't that crazy that people wanna go through? Lady stood in line there. She had a shirt that we sold at a booth back in, what, 02/2009, something like that, at a National Science Teachers Association, and she pulled the shirt out to wear because she knew it was gonna be here.
Steve Spangler:That's somebody who's now turning the tables and giving me an experience. She just gave me a best day ever. Yeah. That's the coolest part.
Jordan Bassett:That and I I guess I just think about how we don't really grow out of that. Like, thinking back to students. Right? We've been talking about teachers for a while, but going back to students, you know, they want that same thing, that same connection, that same longing for, hey, teacher, look what I did. Hey, look at my dog.
Jordan Bassett:You have a dog. Here's my dog. Nice. Look at our dogs. Our dogs are awesome.
Jordan Bassett:You know, it's it's the same for all of us. And so
Steve Spangler:We all wanna feel valued. We do. We all wanna be seen. And that's the thing that I've learned is that many times what I thought was disciplinary problems in the classroom with kids standing up and running over here and running over there. Some of that is, I'm sure.
Steve Spangler:But some of it is that once you we open up an experience and the kids start to do our hands I can always tell a teacher who says, I do a lot of hands on science, but you see what's going on in the classroom, you're like, you don't do a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Because the kids don't know just yet. Once they're into that and they're doing those they're they're involved in your experience, you can see them go from this state of follow the directions to they've been transformed.
Steve Spangler:Yeah. And you can see it in their eyes. And all of sudden, they're into this new thing, and they're like, give me three more straws, and I need some clay, and get me the and you see what happens
Jordan Bassett:to They're thinking outside of what was just taught. They're taking it to the next step. That's Absolutely. That's what what was like for me. I can remember some specific teachers that there's something like, okay, yeah, I got the content.
Jordan Bassett:I can pass the test. And then there's others that the way that they made those experiences and those connections that I took what they were teaching and I couldn't stop thinking about. Right. And then I come home I come back to school the next day, and I said, you know, I was thinking about this. What if you took these things and did that Yeah.
Jordan Bassett:With it? And they're like, I don't know.
Steve Spangler:I don't know.
Jordan Bassett:Let's try it.
Steve Spangler:But isn't it funny that and you have to look at the young teachers, for example, and be able to go, oh, that's a that's a kid who's right there. You know? And that's where you have to go, I do not that's the greatest thing I've ever heard. You know what? If we can sneak some time at the end of the day, let's see how quickly we can do this, this, and that.
Steve Spangler:I think I got a chunk of time for us to do that. I mean, that's just acknowledging the kid. You had the time anyway. You know what I mean? So you're ready to do the whole thing.
Steve Spangler:So I tell teachers, if you're going to do Mentos and Diet Coke, you better not have one roll of Mentos and one bottle of Diet Coke because it's a bad day. Because the thing a kid says when you pop those Mentos into a Diet Coke and it shoots up in the air, they're gonna go, Do it again.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. One more time. Let me
Steve Spangler:see it again. If you're a great teacher, you're like, I don't know. Back of my car. I got a whole bunch of that. If we were to do it again, what would you change and what do you think would happen?
Steve Spangler:All I'm doing is seeding the experience. So and the kids, they always say, drop more Mentos in, and it's gonna go higher. More Mentos. You got it. But you go, just get one because it's we learn scientific method.
Steve Spangler:And by the way, how are we gonna drop them in too? We gotta get them all in at one time. So now design. Mhmm. So you see what you're doing?
Steve Spangler:You're just crafting the experience. Yeah. And then you go, I wonder how high it's gonna go. We better put it up against the brick wall outside. Mhmm.
Steve Spangler:We'll count the wet bricks on the way up. So if I drop three of them in, it goes up 10 bricks. Yeah.
Jordan Bassett:But if I
Steve Spangler:drop seven of them in, it goes up 17 bricks. Now I'm gathering data.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Steve Spangler:So you might say, contrived, and I'd go, you're right. But they're all part of the game. They're all part of this little experience. And if I can show and model that, then when we do it again, they're gonna take a little bit more. And when we do another one, they're gonna take a little bit more.
Steve Spangler:So they're gonna get to take control of this. But I gotta show them how to do it.
Jordan Bassett:Right.
Steve Spangler:And make it seem like it's theirs.
Jordan Bassett:And and give right. Give them the opportunity for them to do it as well, not just
Steve Spangler:And it's almost like you're the bad guy. Not bad guy, but it's the bad boy syndrome. You know I mean? Bad girl syndrome.
Jordan Bassett:The other side.
Steve Spangler:Don't tell anybody. We're gonna go launch toilet paper. And Miro, the custodian, is gonna get real angry if we find We gotta roll it back up. And the kids are like, We're in! Let's do it.
Steve Spangler:That's right. Because all of a sudden, it's a little bit different. Something feels different here. It's just it's and and I love to see teachers who find it. Yeah.
Steve Spangler:And and they've been teaching for a long time, and they just needed somebody to go, that's what this is all about.
Jordan Bassett:So I started thinking about, you know, the we've talked about a lot of different things, creating these experiences, And you have several decades of experience.
Steve Spangler:Thanks for pointing that out. You're welcome.
Jordan Bassett:I appreciate that. There had to be some failures along the way.
Steve Spangler:Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. But I
Jordan Bassett:can I can see some some educators listening to this podcast? And like, this all sounds great, guys. But what if it doesn't work the time? What if it fails? What Well, I think there's
Steve Spangler:What do
Jordan Bassett:you say to someone who's afraid to try these things because they're afraid they're gonna it's not gonna work or it's gonna fail?
Steve Spangler:I think you break it into two sections. You go, what if the experience I'm creating fails? We've all done that before. So I don't know. I didn't mix enough cornstarch and water, and I should have had a little bit more of this, or the glue didn't stick or whatever.
Steve Spangler:That's one type of failure, and that's an easy answer. That's like, well, of course, you're supposed to fail, the kids are supposed to see you fail. And so some I've done it two ways where you set it up and you and I purposely fail in front of the kids and let them so you feign the principle is called feigning ignorance. Right? It's like, I just don't know how to do and the kid's like, you should have added more salt or you should have used sugar.
Steve Spangler:So they become the rock star because they become part of their own discovery, you know? So they'll take responsibility and jump in a little bit more when they're a part of that process. So feigning ignorance, kinda fun to do. But, again, it's it's part of the expert and, of course, things don't work sometimes. But can I take it from another angle that goes, so what happens when you wanna do this and you're not in a supportive environment?
Steve Spangler:When you have somebody who shuts that down, an administrator who shuts that down. Sometimes when, as an educator, we do this kind of thing and all of a sudden there's some momentum there and then parents are talking about it, As we talked about today, if it gets to the dinner table, you win. Yes. That whole principle to unbox sometime. But the idea, in short, is if what you did that day was so cool that kids will talk about it at the dinner table, that's virality.
Steve Spangler:That's amazing. Sometimes that can be a threat. I don't know who's listening to this. That sometimes can be a threat to an administrator. Yeah.
Steve Spangler:Maybe an unseasoned administrator who's like, I'm fearful this person, this teacher here is getting too much power. And parents like her too much and whatever. And so you can I've seen teachers cut that way before in terms of going, we're not doing this anymore. You're not doing this. And that's a weird environment to be in.
Steve Spangler:But I've talked to teachers a lot. We do this these workshops all over the country, and you get those teachers going, wish I could do this. I just don't have a real supportive administrator. And part of the technique there is to do everything possible to get an administrator to come to a program like this. When you can experience Innovative Schools Summit with an administrator, things kinda disappear.
Steve Spangler:The walls come down. Yeah. So instead of it's me against you, it's let's do this together. I need your help in creating this experience. Quick little thing.
Steve Spangler:I was teaching at Regis University years and years and years ago. The National Hands on Science Institute was at Regis University. I don't have a doctorate, but I was adjunct faculty. And after three weeks of science camp, great science camp, kids coming through, teachers coming through, we had an NSF grant, National Science Foundation, the head of the chemistry department, the department chair, brings me into her office and shut the door at the end, I'm expecting her to go, great job, Steve Spangler. I mean, the kids are crazy and everything.
Steve Spangler:And she says, Quick thing. Do you see the certificates on the wall right there? And she pointed to her doctoral multiple doctorals. She goes, That's hard work. She said, All I saw for three weeks is screwing around.
Steve Spangler:She said, I've listened to kids screaming and yelling in the halls. I've seen our labs turn into a playground. I've seen teachers not really doing real experiments, but it's just milk and food coloring and whatever. She says, my only hope is that someday those kids will have another experience where they realize that if you want that, it's hard work. She says, the only reason I let you guys go, because doctor Julianelli has an NSF grant, and you're bringing some money to the school.
Steve Spangler:But I don't want you to think that this is what science is about. You're trying to make it fun for them. Science isn't fun. And she dismissed me. Like, thank you.
Steve Spangler:I just wanted to share that with you. Yeah. And as I'm walking down the hall at a young age going, I wonder how she didn't get it. And I can't be so smart that I'm the only one who gets it. Yeah.
Steve Spangler:But when you have people like that in the world, and there will always be those people, I think you have to dust yourself off a little bit and just go, She didn't get it. And it's okay. I just gotta be in a different environment. And so it's my job to put myself in a different environment. I can't change the way that she feels about it.
Steve Spangler:Mhmm. I can be respectful. And so what I've learned to to do is to be very respectful of the hard work that goes into it. My job is just to get the kids excited to one day sign on the dotted line to go, I wanna be that.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Steve Spangler:But there's no convincing. So what I learned, and the answer to that is to put myself in a different environment, different place, and to be and say, thank you for this, but I needed to be in a different place. And we moved the National Hands on Science Institute to something else.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah.
Steve Spangler:Yeah.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. It can be tough kind of facing Right?
Steve Spangler:I think that's the reality. It's not just all, hey, that's great. Unicorns and rainbows. Yeah. There's some tough stuff that we all go through.
Jordan Bassett:Yeah. There's always. And I think some well, some of the things that you said before, it's just embracing failure as an opportunity for growth. Learning and growing from I know I found personally for me, I I find more I learn more when something doesn't succeed. I've found a new way that something doesn't work.
Jordan Bassett:And sometimes it can take a while. And so whether that's in trying to make a connection with someone like you're talking about with that little girl on Zoom, you tried you found the one way that works, but you found two dozen ways that don't. And now you know. Now you know that information.
Steve Spangler:And by accident.
Jordan Bassett:By accident. By accident.
Steve Spangler:You know, the the other thing is I look and I love the setup that you have here. When our so our television show is called DIY Si, and we're we just wrapped up season seven. And so when we've been allowed to go into a school and work with kids Mhmm. And we got a great crew. We've been traveling with that crew for seven seasons.
Steve Spangler:We know it's gonna happen, and we purposely put time in the schedule for those kids who wanna know about the cameras. Mhmm. And they're fascinated by lighting and how do you do the sound. Realize the science is one thing. They love this.
Steve Spangler:And so we want the crew to be able to connect with them. So it's nothing formal. It's just you can see the kids that want to learn more. And so it's just that little extra time, and we're afforded that time because you don't know what spark you're gonna ignite. But it's that kind of thing of building connection.
Steve Spangler:And the unfortunate part is once you figure this stuff out, you're about ready to retire. And so you hope, hope and pray that you can at least share some of these things with really young people to go. So think about this. When you're when you've got the platform and you get the opportunity to do this, just and hopefully, story resonates with you so that you'll do the same thing for kids someday. Yeah.
Steve Spangler:Because I'll be long gone. Mhmm. You know?
Jordan Bassett:That's great. Steve, thank you so much for sitting and just talking with us.
Steve Spangler:You're so nice.
Jordan Bassett:Make I didn't blow
Steve Spangler:up anything bad. I just did a little fire. Fire. Thank you for the thoughtful questions, and thanks for the opportunity to to this Innovative School Summit. Nice, nice job with the experience that you create for people.
Steve Spangler:You're not trying to be anybody else. There are lots of conferences that are out there. This has a feel to it. There is an ISS feel. It really is great.
Steve Spangler:So thank you for letting me Well, thank bringing me in and allowing me to be able to interact with your very special path.
Jordan Bassett:Absolutely. We'll see you again sometime, maybe.
Steve Spangler:Thank you. Okay.
Jordan Bassett:Thank you everyone for joining us this season, this inaugural season on the Innovative Schools podcast. I hope you enjoyed what we've done here. We're gonna be back soon in just a couple months. We're taking a summer break just like all of you guys should to just build on what we've done here and how we can make it better for you guys in the next season. We hope that you enjoyed it.
Jordan Bassett:We hope that you learned things. We hope that you've shared this with other educators because it's been helpful to you. We definitely want to build this podcast. And so if you have ideas, leave us a comment, follow, subscribe, all that different stuff so that we can continue to make meaningful, helpful content for teachers and educators. We hope you have a great summer, and we'll see you next time.