School Science Assemblies · since 1994The Greatest Science Show on EarthWherever your students gather. Laughing the whole time.
Emmy-nominated David Hagerman brings his Extreme Science assembly to elementary and middle schools across the country. It's hilarious and highly visual, every laugh teaches a real science principle, and at family science nights the parents laugh right along with the kids.
School theatersGymsCafeteriasPerforming arts centersMultipurpose roomsLibraries
Tesla coilthe original meme: a 2,000,000 V discharge
Your students already know him
Make sure it's on low.
1,000,000,000+
views and counting
The internet-famous “Make sure it's on low” meme started as an original video on David's YouTube channel, WizardShows, and took off on TikTok. When kids find out that guy is coming to their school, they're excited before he even walks in.
Each assembly is matched to the grades in the room, so it's playful for elementary students and deeper for middle schoolers.
iRoutines vary by venue. Each performance is built for its space and audience, so a demonstration listed here may not appear in every show.
Vortex cannons
Flagship show · since 1999
Extreme Science
Grades K–8High schools book it tooTwo performersSeen at NASA
A wild ride through physics, chemistry and everything in between. It has two performers, bigger demos than anything else on the circuit, and comedy timing sharpened over thirty years of school assemblies.
Vortex cannons that fly overhead and into faces
A floating beach ball and Bernoulli's principle
A giant bungee slingshot: potential vs. kinetic energy
Van de Graaff hair-raising static electricity
Gyroscopes pulling off impossible balancing acts
Polymers turned into slime
Crystals that make water “vanish”
“David Hagerman's Extreme Science Assembly is top of the line. He made Science fun and our teachers and kiddos cannot stop talking about how cool it was.”
Jen Thomson · Lincrest Elementary · Yuba City, CA
The guarantee: if you don't agree it's one of the best assemblies ever to visit your school, no payment is due.
Comedy, magic, audience participation and, of course, math. It stays simple for younger students and gets surprisingly advanced for middle schoolers. The favorite trick: showing kids that the math they already know can do miraculous things.
The mystery of the Möbius strip
Why optical illusions fool our brains
The magical properties of the number 9
A volunteer predicts the sum of random numbers
The Magic Square, solved live
High-speed paper folding using geometry
“He's funny, entertaining and quite educational. If you hire Hagerman, you will not be disappointed.”
Laurie Hendrickson · Cedar Ridge Elementary PTA · Tulsa, OK
Students gain a new respect for something they take for granted every day: sound. Hagerman covers amplitude, frequency and tone quality with gadgets, music and some very brave volunteers.
Breaking the sound barrier with a bull whip
A large musical Tesla coil that plays songs with lightning
An oscilloscope that shows what sound looks like
Tuning forks, a megaphone and a keyboard sing-along
“Your combination of science experiments, facts and humor was very entertaining and sparked the curiosity of many of the students.”
Jill Fitzgerald · Immanuel Lutheran School · Bristol, CT
Your Extreme Science show was hands down the best assembly I've been to in my 16 years of teaching! My students and I have been talking about it all day long!
Cassi Crossman · Tecumseh Elementary · Jamesville, NY
Family science nightgrown-ups welcome (and laughing)
Evening shows for the whole family
Family science nights where the parents laugh the hardest.
Many schools book an evening Extreme Science show for families. The kids come for the demos. The adults stay for the comedy, and many say they enjoyed it as much as the kids, if not more.
The jokes land on multiple levels, so the whole family laughs together and goes home talking about science. When an evening show is paired with daytime assemblies, the daytime shows are mostly different routines, and the excitement carries over: kids beg their parents to come, so more families show up and join in.
Perfect for PTO/PTA family nights and STEM nights
Humor that works for kids and grown-ups at once
Pair it with daytime shows: kids beg their parents to come
Also available for community events
“Everybody was blown away by your show, it was perfect for our event and your talent far exceeded anybody’s highest expectations.”
Most assemblies are a one-person act. Every one of ours has two performers, so the experiments are larger and more visual.
Observation 02
Stand-up comedy about science
David performs like a stand-up comic whose material is science. The jokes are the lesson, so every laugh points back to a principle.
Observation 03
Original shows, never bought
Some assembly providers buy a scripted show and hire someone to read it. Ours are written in-house by performers who can answer students' questions.
Observation 04
Right for every grade
The science and the humor are tuned to each audience: playful for younger students, deeper for older ones, and always clean.
Observation 05
Fast, friendly booking
A full-time office manager, Mashelle, answers questions quickly and keeps you informed from first call to showtime.
Observation 06
Proven since 1994
Thousands of schools, more than a million students, and a long list of schools that book again every year.
The research
Decades of studies show that humor tied directly to the lesson helps students pay attention and remember more. In Ziv (1988), classes taught with lesson-related humor learned significantly more. Davies & Apter (1980) found that primary students remembered humorous material best. Kaplan & Pascoe (1977) showed that relevant humor is what counts.
That's how Extreme Science is built: the laugh and the lesson land at the same moment. Read more about us →
Real assemblies, real volunteers. Every demo shows a science idea students can take back to class.
Live at NASAExtreme Science on the big stageVortex ring vs. cup towerair pressure, student-testedRose + liquid nitrogentheme-park show · −196 °CFloating beach ballBernoulli's principleFire safety, done safelychemistry with a volunteer crewGyroscopeangular momentumExtreme Science 2.0theme-park editionSmoke vortex ringfluid dynamics you can seeAudience reactionresults: highly reproducibleTesla coilelectricity you can seeLift-offair flow and pressure
“
Even the 9th graders, who are reportedly “too cool” to show people they enjoyed the show, were the last ones out and asking questions of the presenter.
“Hagerman travels the country and is truly one of the nation’s best kept secrets.” — Delta Dunklin Democrat
Straightforward pricing
What a school assembly costs.
We're a three-person operation (performer, assistant and a full-time office manager), so every assembly has two performers. It costs a little more than a one-person assembly, and schools tell us it's well worth it.
First daytime show$1,725
Two performers, about 45 minutes.
Each additional back-to-back performance$700
The same show performed again right after. Two back-to-back come to $2,425 total.
No travel fees when your school joins a tour already coming through your area. Outside planned tours, travel may be $0.90/mile round trip. Call and ask when we'll be near you.
“I imagine that you will be visiting Ehrhardt again. Thank you for being reliable, timely and affordable.”
Tiffany Sedate · Ehrhardt Elementary · Texas
Meet the wizard
A magic kid who found the science inside every trick.
David Hagerman grew up in Missouri and went looking for magic books at the library. He quickly learned that every magic trick has science hidden inside it, and science became his favorite subject for life. He went on to win science competitions like the Science Olympiad, and today he's back at those events inspiring the next generation.
His school career started in 1994, when a Detroit assembly agency sent the 22-year-old to California for nine months. He and his dog, Sylvie, toured the West Coast, and the reports were so good that he was promoted to lead the company's Midwest tour. That meant four shows a day, five days a week, for years. It's where he sharpened the comic timing that makes Extreme Science what it is today.
1994First school tour: nine months on the West Coast
1995Named lead performer for the Midwest tour
1999Extreme Science is born
Viral“Make sure it's on low” passes 1 billion views
TelevisionAmerica's Got Talent
2024Emmy nomination, 47th Boston/New England Emmy Awards · Extreme Science performs at NASA
Today250+ school shows this year, 1,000,000+ students and counting
Mainly kindergarten through 8th grade. High schools book Extreme Science too because it's that entertaining.
What kind of room do you need?
Whatever your school has. We perform assemblies in school theaters, gyms, cafeterias, performing arts centers, multipurpose rooms and smaller spaces.
Is the content age-appropriate?
Yes. Each assembly is tailored to the grades in the room, from elementary through middle school, with science and humor matched to the students' ages. All material is clean and school-friendly.
Do you do family science nights?
Yes, and they're a favorite. Evening shows are built for mixed audiences, and parents often tell us they enjoyed it as much as their kids. When paired with daytime assemblies, the daytime routines are mostly different, and the excitement from the day brings more families and more participation at night. Two daytime shows plus one evening show is the $3,500 package.
How long is a show?
About 45 minutes.
Can we book for just some grades?
Absolutely. Book one whole-school assembly, or have the same show performed twice, back to back, so younger and older grades each get their own performance.
Where do you perform?
At schools in every state in the continental U.S. We plan tours by region, and schools that book while we're in their area pay no extra travel costs.
