Wikipedia:Doug Peltz

Doug Peltz, popularly known as Mystery Doug, is an American science communicator and entrepreneur based in San Francisco. He is best known as the host of the weekly science show Mystery Doug, and as the co-founder and voice behind the popular science curriculum Mystery Science, a science program used in 50% of U.S. elementary schools and recently acquired by Discovery Education.

Early Influence
”I had always loved science from the time I was a kid. I thought the only career path once I got to college was to become a scientist, that's what everyone tells you ... When I got to college, I figured that science explanation would be so much better because now the scientists themselves would be teaching you. It turns out they're even worse at explaining things so I got really interested in the problem of explaining science. I figured out while I was in college that I wanted to become a teacher and write my own curriculum.

Career
As an avid naturalist, Peltz was the first to discover that the Mediterranean red bug had migrated to North America.

Peltz has long appeared in various news outlets to explain and discuss natural phenomena, such as 2010 fireball over Irvine on NBC News and in the Orange County Register. In 2020, Peltz interviewed NASA astronaut Jessica Meir about what it's like living aboard the International Space Station and appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio to discuss how families were navigating the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2013, Peltz co-founded Mystery Science with Keith Schacht. Mystery Science creates open-and-go lessons for elementary teachers and helps them teach science without requiring a background in science. Interviews with Y Combinator, one their investors, detailed an unconventional business model in which the company sold to schools and districts across the United States without a sales team.

In October 2017, Peltz launched an initiative titled Eclipse America in which he partnered with Google to provide free eclipse glasses and lessons to teachers in classrooms. Peltz's business endeavors have been featured by Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.

Peltz elaborates on his unique approach to answering children's questions in an interview with Montessori Education and on Game Changers TV.

In October 2020, Peltz joined Discovery Education as Mystery Science became a wholly owned subsidiary; Mystery Science was acquired for $140 million. The science program is now used in more than 50% of elementary schools.