Dr. George Mehler Is Turning YouTube into His Global Classroom
When Dr. George Mehler uploaded a handful of science demonstrations to YouTube, he expected the videos to be viewed only by a few hundred teachers in his district. Instead, his channel FunScienceDemos has become a global phenomenon, viewed in more than 20 languages and with nearly 200,000 subscribers.
By Eddy Kosik
Dr. George Mehler EDU ’80, ’08, never expected that a collection of science demonstrations for elementary teachers would attract an international audience. Today, his channel FunScienceDemos has more than 191,000 subscribers, a significant achievement given that less than .5% of YouTube channels ever reach 100,000 subscribers. The videos get thousands of views a day from students and educators around the world.
“During the school year,” George said, “we have around 110,000 unique viewers every 90 days. That's more people than can fit in the football stadium at the University of Michigan.”
Yet when George graduated from college, he had no intention of becoming a teacher.
“I knew that I loved science,” he said. “I always loved biology, but I never considered teaching as a career.”
A map showing the scope of FunScienceDemo's audience.
A map showing the scope of FunScienceDemo's audience.
After graduating, George traveled through Australia and American Samoa before returning to the United States to work in a laboratory while planning for graduate school.
“I figured I’d get a job in a lab, make some money, and then go to graduate school.”
Instead, he discovered he hated laboratory work. Then a chance meeting with a vice principal at a party hosted by his parents led to a long-term substitute teaching position that changed his life.
“I saw the impact I could have as a teacher, and I just loved it.”
George earned his master’s degree from Temple in 1980, becoming certified to teach.
“That’s when I fell in love with Temple,” he remembered. “I remember walking around campus during those first few months and thinking, ‘This is what a real university feels like.’”
George began teaching biology full time in the Central Bucks School District. He remembers struggling at first: “My first year was horrible,” George said. “Absolutely horrible. I couldn’t figure out why all the other teachers in my department weren’t having the same problems I was.”
But George stuck with it. “I realized I could start using humor in the classroom. As long as I showed kids that I wanted them to be successful in my class, that I really cared about them getting better and learning more, and answering basic questions about life, they responded to that.”
FunScienceDemos received the Silver Creator Award in 2021 for passing 100,000 subscribers.
FunScienceDemos received the Silver Creator Award in 2021 for passing 100,000 subscribers.
“I fell in love with teaching then,” George said, “and I’m still in love with it now.”
Over the years, George moved into science curriculum leadership, eventually overseeing elementary science instruction across 15 schools and supporting hundreds of teachers. There was a problem, one that existed not just in his district but across the United States. Many of the elementary educators were expected to teach science despite having little formal science background.
“The only way I could think to manage [the role] was to ask principals to identify the very best science teachers in their elementary schools,” George explained. “I brought together two or three teachers from each school, people who loved science and loved teaching it. They became an elementary science committee that met every month.”
One of those teachers was Jared Hottenstein.
When George realized the district was missing a fifth-grade weather unit, he and Jared decided to create one themselves. George recorded Jared demonstrating each lesson, edited the videos and uploaded them to YouTube so teachers could revisit them at their leisure.
“The funny thing is,” George said, “I had no idea I was creating a YouTube channel. I just thought I was uploading videos so teachers could access them later during professional development.”
When he logged into the channel later, he discovered that he had already developed a small but international following.
“There were already people from all over the world watching the weather demonstrations. I had no idea. They were leaving comments and interacting with the videos.”
The studio where Dr. Mehler and his team film their FunScience Network videos.
The studio where Dr. Mehler and his team film their FunScience Network videos.
George realized that he and Jared had stumbled onto something much bigger.
“I said to him, ‘We need to build a channel around the national science standards, covering every important concept that elementary and middle school students should know before they get to high school.’”
The pair began meeting at 6:30 each morning to film several videos before the school day began.
By this time, George had already returned to Temple for his doctorate in curriculum instruction and technology and had been adjunct teaching at Temple Ambler for about a decade. He joined the faculty full time in 2013 after being hired by Dr. Susan Varnum, senior associate dean and the co-director of TUteach.
Members of Dr. Mehler's FunScienceNetwork team table with TUTeach students at Experience Temple Day.
Members of Dr. Mehler's FunScienceNetwork team table with TUTeach students at Experience Temple Day.
The mission of TUteach aligned naturally with FunScienceDemos. While TUteach allows students to combine STEM and education classes while gaining firsthand classroom experience, FunScienceDemos helps elementary and middle school teachers build confidence teaching science through engaging demonstrations using inexpensive materials.
“All of our demonstrations use easy-to-find materials that teachers can replicate themselves,” George said. “We hear from teachers all the time through YouTube comments. We also hear from kids. Kids will write things like, ‘This demonstration really helped me on my quiz,’ or, ‘I needed an idea for my science project, and this gave me one.’ I didn’t foresee the community that would develop around the project. That’s been incredibly heartening.”
YouTube’s translation tools allow the videos to be viewed in more than 20 languages. Only about 40% of the audience is in the United States. One comment in particular from an ESL instructor in Vietnam has stayed with George: “She was using our videos because the English captions helped her students learn English while they were also learning science. She said it allowed her to accomplish both goals at once. I thought that was wonderful.”
“I'm inspired by Temple students every day. There's an incredible diversity here. I know people often use 'diversity' as a buzzword, but I don't think everyone really appreciates what it means. The diversity we have at Temple is incredible."
The project has since expanded beyond YouTube to include classroom resources through FunScienceTools, lesson support materials through FunScienceSupport and even animated science videos through FunScienceToons. The cartoons are all created by Temple students, including 30 Under 30 honoree Nick Santangelo, TFM ’19.
George takes great pride in his team of Temple students and graduates.
“I’m inspired by Temple students every day,” he said. “There’s an incredible diversity here. I know people often use ‘diversity’ as a buzzword, but I don’t think everyone really appreciates what it means. The diversity we have at Temple is incredible. We have first-generation students, students working 30 or 40 hours a week while earning their degrees, students attending part time. It’s just great.”
George’s admiration for Temple extends to his own family. All three of his children attended the university, and his daughter Emilie followed him into education, earning both her bachelor’s and master’s degree from Temple before becoming an eighth-grade English teacher.
“We’re definitely a Temple family,” he said. “We bleed cherry and white.”
Dr. Mehler received Youtube's Silver Creator Award in 2021.
Dr. Mehler received Youtube's Silver Creator Award in 2021.
George’s appreciation for the university has only deepened over the years.
“There are very few institutions in this country that genuinely strive toward the ideals and values we aspire to as a society,” he said. “None of them do it perfectly, because people are imperfect. But Temple is one of those institutions that continually strives toward those ideals better than almost anywhere else I’ve experienced. I’ve seen a number of universities over the years, and I just think Temple is a very special place.”
George says he is reminded of that every time he hears the stories of his students.
“Many of them have overcome extraordinary challenges just to earn a college degree, or simply to keep life together,” he said. “Seeing that makes me want to do the very best I can for them.”
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