How can I describe Spez? Imagine if you will,.......the excitement of a fireworks show, including a healthy portion of Mr. Wizard science and a twist of magic; presented by a handsome Italian with the wit of a genius Leprechaun...and you've got a presentation by Michael DiSpezio.  Being in his audience is always an intellectual treat, ..... and always a gas.

Steven L. Jacobs,
Chief Scientist, Faraday Studios / Discovery Channel 
Director of Informal Science
National Science Teachers Association

Michael Dispezio was one of the most dynamic speakers we have had the privilege of hearing during the 15 years of hosting Hot Springs Technology Institute.  He introduced K-12 educators from Arkansas to innovative ways to reach children with the latest information from the latest in brain research techniques.  Michael interacts with the crowd to get them thinking in ways beyond the old "four walls" in a classroom.  His delivery style kept us on our toes, made us laugh, but most of all made us think.  You will leave his session with tools to take back to the classroom, workplace, or in your personal life that will open everyones eyes to how the brain works.

Don Benton
Director of Technology
Hot Springs School District

Michael was AWESOME! He was flexible, easy to work with, energetic, fun, personable ... what other great adjectives can I come up with? He stayed on message, yet was willing (and able) to make client-requested changes to the script at the 11th hour.

He really is fluid in everything he does. The client just LOVED him. He did three great shows, and the third was as good as the first. He jumped in the crowd afterward, talking to kids, signing autographs and encouraging them to continue on in the sciences, and they responded so well! Here's a great story about how good he is with kids.

After the second show, we wanted some video footage of Michael talking with kids. So, I headed up to a main concourse, Michael and crew in tow, and corralled about 10 kids who had just seen Michael on stage. I asked if they wanted to meet and talk with him, and they were excited, of course. So, Michael stepped in and started talking to them as we filmed.

He asked questions, talked to them both as a group and as individuals, and the kids were quickly smiling and laughing and having a great time. Well, within five minutes, that group of 10 kids had grown to more than FIFTY ... and was still growing! The guy is a kid magnet. I commented to my show director, "There's a guy who's doing exactly what he's meant to do."

Todd Haight
Michigan Tech Univeristy

Michael was outstanding. High school teachers are a difficult audience; however, he had all 600 employees, including high school teachers, standing up, making "whirley bird airplanes", using 3-D glasses, laughing, participating, and thoroughly enjoying everything he had to say. He made them proud to be in the teaching profession."

Linda Jacobs
Forney ISD

Describing Michael DiSpezio as a science educator is like describing a tornado as "windy." Actually, describing DiSpezio as a tornado would be more accurate. "Working with Michael is refreshing," says one collaborator. "It’s like, hold onto your seats, here we go!"

A self-proclaimed "renaissance educator," DiSpezio has been involved in all aspects of science education. He has taught, written and developed curriculum, conducted workshops, and produced videos.

And that’s just the beginning. It takes only a brief introduction to DiSpezio to realize that his energy and enthusiasm are contagious. Perhaps it’s the rapid-fire manner in which he speaks, or his animated descriptions. Or maybe it’s his appearance: part Einstein (the hair), part New Yorker (the black clothes), and part Bohemian (the convertible, the suntan, the Birkenstocks year-round).

Before he entered the enterprenuerial world, DiSpezio paid his dues in the scientific community. After earning his master’s in biology from Boston University, he spent six summers as research assistant to Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole.

After leaving the science laboratory, DiSpezio taught science at the middle, high school, and university level. Following his classroom jobs, DiSpezio became an independent science educator. His clients include The Weather Channel, Children’s Television Workshop, DuPont, and the U.S. Department of Energy. A long-standing affiliation with the National Science Teachers Assocation (NSTA) involving workshop and curriculum development resulted in the 1997 curriculum "The Science of HIV," which earned international acclaim, including an Emmy Award nomination for the accompanying video. DiSpezio also writes curriculum supplements for Discover magazine and the PBS television series "Scientific American Frontiers."

DiSpezio is the author of over two dozen elementary, middle and high school science textbooks and has written numerous trade books on topics ranging from optical illusions to critical thinking puzzles. He often incorporates critical thinking activities into his presentations at NSTA conventions and other organizational meetings throughout the country.

Assignments in the science education field have taken him to the Middle East, Europe and, most recently, the Bahamas, where he helped create curriculum for the Discovery Channel Camp at the Atlantis resort.

Closer to home–DiSpezio resides in North Falmouth with his wife, a nurse, and son, aged 11–he is finishing up a WHOI Sea Grant-supported project to develop educational flash cards featuring local marine species. The 100-card series is beautifully illustrated with original watercolors by Woods Hole artist Tessa Morgan. In addition to printed flash cards, an interactive web site based on the cards is under consideration.

Tracy Crago
WHOI Seagrant

BAUMHOLDER, Germany — Now you see it, now you don’t — a common trick for magicians.

However, did you really even see it at all?

That is the science of illusion as demonstrated by Michael DiSpezio, a curriculum architect from the JASON Academy to more than 1,400 students in Baumholder and Kaiserslautern on Thursday.

Kids are naturally curious, Di-Spezio said. When kids see how illusions confuse and fool the brain, they want to know how and why. Science has the answers to those questions.

DiSpezio presented several 45-minute shows to students from five central German Department of Defense Dependents Schools. The shows were simple overhead transparency slides projected onto a white screen, but the slides generated more laughter and excitement than a Harry Potter movie.

Making science fun gets kids excited enough to learn more, said Marily DeWall, director of the academy who accompanied DiSpezio at the presentations. "It’s really motivational," she added.

"It was too cool," said William Ward, 13, from Baumholder High School. "I never knew there are so many different types of illusions and your brain could trick you so much."

The students saw common illusions such as the old lady and young lady face-in-one, and then introduced to illusions in art, word against color illusions, and shape and color illusions.

The students even saw things that were not there. At one point everyone saw the ghostly after image of Elvis, the long dead King of Rock ’n Roll, appearing on the screen where only a small black dot existed.

People have studied the science of illusions since the late 1800s, DiSpezio said. Astronomers wanted to get a better idea of how the eyes could be fooled because they wanted to make sure what they were seeing while studying the stars was accurate.

Students also learned about three-dimensional images and how people make the images.

"The bug really jumped out at me," said Morgan Powers, 12, from Baumholder High School. "I screamed and everything!"

The JASON Academy is an extension of the JASON Project. Dr. Robert Ballard, who found the remains of the Titanic in 1986, started the project to enable children to participate in field science from their classroom.

The academy focuses on providing teachers with the tools to make science in the classroom more exciting through a series of online science courses, DeWall said.

A real live wire who enjoys teaching children, DiSpezio is the right person to reach kids with science, said Ruth Higgins, a science liaison for DODDS.

"He walks into a classroom and kids just melt," she said.

"Teaching is a passion for me," DiSpezio said. "I believe we can improve the human condition with education — and it’s best to reach children when they are young."

Besides teaching, DiSpezio has authored more than 20 books and more than 20 educational textbooks.

After the lights came back on and the dots cleared from everyone’s eyes, the show garnered rave reviews from the departing students, said Carol Rudd, a 10th grade English teacher from Baumholder High School. "This was a real world application that showed kids what they can do with science," she said.

Sean E. Cobbs
Stars and Stripes

How do you make science fun for kids? Experts say, get them out of the classroom and get their hands dirty. A local Cape resident has made that his mission. He's left the world of laboratory research and now writes books and gives workshops geared towards getting kids interested in science.

It's a rainy day in Centerville, but there's no sign of gloom and doom inside the town's library. Michael DiSpezio of North Falmouth is using scientific principles to teach young kids how to make music.

(sounds of children and commotion)
OK, everyone take a straw, and put the straw in your mouth and place it in the back of your teeth and chomp down and flatten it like this. .

DiSpezio walks the kids through this little science experiment. Next, they make two cuts at the flattened end of the straw. .

Michael DiSpezio: "OK, everyone hold it up and let's see what we've got. Excellent. Alright, here's the next step." .

DiSpezio takes a pair of scissors and shortens his straw as he blows into it. The sound changes because there's a relationship between the sound's pitch and the length of the straw. .

(horn-like sounds)
( children's laughter as pitch goes up)

May not be high tech science, but the kids are impressed, and they think it's fun. DiSpezio says these sorts of activities are great ways to get kids involved in their own education. .

Michael DiSpezio: "They love hands on. In this way, you're able to get beyond this concept of you'll sit in a chair and I'll teach you as opposed to the student taking ownership in their learning, and they really become active in their learning experience."

Lynn Parks teaches eighth grade physical science at the Lawrence School in Falmouth, and she agrees teaching from a textbook is not enough. .

Lynn Parks: "Hands-on science is a way to motivate students by first peaking their interest, then they start to apply what they've already seen to what the book says, and they understand it much better."

DiSpezio hopes his style will encourage parents and teachers to use the same sorts of activities in the home and the classroom. Not that he thinks textbooks are passe. .

Michael DiSpezio: "You need some basic things to memorize so that you have some common vocabulary and some common understanding. But what you do with that becomes more important than just increasing memorization." .

Science can be intimidating with all of its theories and principles. But Falmouth science teacher Bob Heller says we see it all around us in nature, and it's even where we can't see it. .

Bob Heller: "I always tell my students science is like Elvis - it's everywhere." .

Six-year old Elizabeth Ells of Centerville had so much fun at DiSpezio's workshop, she's now thinking of science in terms of a career. Along with her other aspirations, that is. .

Elizabeth Ells: "Science is fun. He taught us a lot of science, and I like it so much I think I'm going to be a science teacher, and a nail painter, and a dresser upper, and a hairdo person." .

Various hands-on programs across the country have been successful in improving kids' performance in science classes. And some have even increased students' interest in research and health related careers.

Dr. Tracey Hampton
NPR Science Journal
Broadcast March 14, 2003

Michael DiSpezio is an inspiring, energetic and captivating speaker. His presentations are always entertaining, as well as informative, engaging the audience in active participation.

Rossella Cosso
European Council of Independent Schools, Chair of science committee
Physical Science Department head at Collège du Léman International School

Working with Michael was a blast! He never stopped trying to refine his performance on our live broadcasts. His ability to take difficult and sometimes boring (to children) material and bring it to life for the kids is astounding! I would work with him again at the drop of a hat, his energy is catchy. Michael is a one of a kind; teacher, performer and mentor.

Scott P. Munro
President
Media Arts, Inc

Michael is high-energy science in action. Relevant, fun, and highly
entertaining!

On stage he is one part comedian, one part the best science teacher you
ever had, and one part deeply caring uncle who can connect with every kid
in the audience.  He's a rare and gifted performer who really gets kids.

Dan Beaupré
Manager, National Geographic Live!  Education Programs