Meet Dr. Sparks: Mt. Lebanon native develops distinctive educational program
Karl Smith portrays Dr. Sparks during a recent Matt’s Maker Space event at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon. Assisting him is Christine Herzog.
Harry Funk/ The Almanac
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Karl Smith as Dr. Sparks
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Karl Smith talks with Evie Goforth at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon.
Harry Funk/The Almanac
Christine Herzog assists Dr. Sparks.
From earning a doctorate in biophysics to working for Amazon on developing Alexa, Karl Smith has quite the background in science, to say the least.
“All through this, my overarching passion has always been telling stories to children. It’s the thing that I love, the thing I keep coming back to,” the 2007 Mt. Lebanon High School graduate said.
And so last year, he left Amazon to embark on a venture that combines science and storytelling for a distinctive educational experience.
Smith’s alter ego is Dr. Sparks, who teaches youngsters about various concepts through tales featuring a trickster of a character he came up with, Martian Gopher.
“He’s always getting into trouble, whether it’s because he knows so much about the way the world works, with physics and heat and light, or he gets out of trouble because he knows so much about these things,” Smith explained.
For example:
“He’s trying to steal Brussels sprouts from a squirrel’s garden. So to destroy the garden wall, he gets a wrecking ball, and at first he taps it against the wall gently. Well, it doesn’t work, because you need to swing a wrecking ball.
“So he rolls it up to the top of the mountain. It rolls down. It smashes the wall. And so we learn about how energy can come from the speed of an object.”
Featured in Smith’s presentations are a variety of his inventions, most notably the glowing suspenders he wears. They’re covered with lights that change color when a young participant turns a crank with a wireless connection to the suspenders.
“They make the suspenders match the color in the story, and it’s a really fun thing,” he said.
He always has enjoyed stories about space, so his selection for Gopher’s home was a natural.
“It’s set on Mars, so it’s fantastical. But it’s still kind of grounded to animals the kids are going to know,” he explained, with the likes of deer, salamanders and lightning bugs figuring into his tales.
Smith’s interest in storytelling was piqued while he was working for four summers as a historical interpreter at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.
“I was supposed to be a logger from 1914, chopping down trees with a doubled-bladed ax,” he recalled. “Every night, we would tell stories about life in the woods. And that’s where I fell in love with it. I loved telling these stories about what it was like to be a logger and to really bring that world to life.”
As Dr. Sparks, his primary emphasis is on school assemblies, and he recently undertook a Southern tour of sorts, traveling to Maryland and North Carolina.
“Within that show, we follow a bunch of stories about Martian Gopher, and he discovers that being a trickster is no way to live when you’re on a planet 140 million miles away from earth,” he said. “Having friends is really the smartest thing you can do.”
And of course, the primary emphasis is on teaching lessons about science and related subjects.
“I keep it simple, but in an intuitive way that kids can get,” Smith said. “And the story makes it so they don’t forget it.”
For more information, visit www.doctorsparksshow.com.