Sams developed the idea with fellow chemistry teacher Jonathan Bergmann at Woodland Park High School, at first to help students who fell behind and later to completely change the structure of their classes.

[1][2] Since Woodland Park, Sams served as co-chard of the Colorado State Science Standards Revision Committee, then moved on to become the director of digital learning at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh.

[1] Aaron found an article in a technology magazine about software to record a PowerPoint, voice it, and more to create a video to distribute online.

They began to record their live classes with screen capture software and posted the lectures online, where students could see it on a computer to download it onto their iPods.

[3] Sams and Bergmann also began receiving emails from people outside the class who were watching them, which led to online networking with other math and chemistry teachers in the U.S. His first presentation on the model was from the Cañon City, Colorado school system, which was soon followed an interview on a local television station.

[3] He has worked with other teachers interested in flipping their classrooms, especially in foreign language, leading training workshops on creating video lessons and other aspects of the method.