Dragons vs. Unicorns (Kate the Chemist)

Product Description

Science explosions! Theater! Mystery! Friendship! Fifth grader Kate the Chemist uses STEM knowledge to do incredible things!

Kate the Chemist is a ten-year-old science problem solver. There’s no problem Kate can’t fix! When her best friend, Birdie, is cast as the lead unicorn in their school’s musical
Dragons vs. Unicorns, and Kate is chosen to be the assistant director, they agree this is going to be the best musical EVER! Kate is a natural assistant director; like all good scientists, she’s smart and organized, but she also comes up with great ideas. But when everything starts going wrong with the musical and Kate realizes someone is sabotaging the show, will her special science sleuthing skills help save the day–and the show?
 
Help young Kate the Chemist as she solves science problems in her community, starting with the school musical:
Dragons vs. Unicorns!
 
From Kate the Chemist, chemistry professor and science entertainer as seen on
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,
The Wendy Williams Show, and
The Today Show, comes a clever and fun middle grade series that is the perfect introduction to STEM for young readers!

Make Your Own Unicorn Glue! Experiment Inside!
 

Praise for
Kate the Chemist: Dragons vs. Unicorns
:

“Proves that science and fun go together like molecules in a polymer.”–
School Library Journal

“It’s a great introduction to the basics of Chemistry that is readily accessible to a variety of ages . . . . The way the everyday chemistry is blended in is done seamlessly, and has [me and my ten-year-old son] noticing how we are all doing a little bit of science everyday.” —
GeekMom.com

Review

“This title, which features playfully worded definitions sprinkled throughout, proves that science and fun go together like molecules in a polymer. A delightful addition to early middle grade collections.” —
School Library Journal”This is a fun read that weaves science concepts throughout the story. Kids will enjoy reading about Kate’s antics and will love trying out the chemistry project included at the end of the story.” —
Booklist

About the Author

Dr. Kate Biberdorf, also known as Kate the Chemist by her fans, is a science professor at UT-Austin by day and a science super hero by night (well, she does that by day, too). Kate travels the country building a STEM army of kids who love science as much as she does. You can often find her breathing fire or making slime–always in her lab coat and goggles.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER ONE
Under Pressure

BREATHING FIRE IS EASY.
At least that was what I told myself. I stood in the science lab after school in front of a couple dozen fourth and fifth graders. All waiting on me. No pressure.
“Ready, Kate?” asked Ms. Daly, our after-school
chemistry club advisor.
“I was born ready!” I pumped my arm in the air like I was in the huddle before a soccer game.
“Egg-cellent,” said Ms. Daly. It was her typical cornball humor. Mostly because of this stinky experiment we did last April that turned raw eggs into bouncy balls. A bunch rolled all over the place, and one got lost in the radiator.
Only there weren’t rotten bouncy eggs involved in my demo.

Instead:
1 blowtorch (with a steady base so the schoolwouldn’t catch on fire)
1 big mouth (mine —words pretty much launched outof it and thoughts came later)
2 scoops of cornstarch (nothing to do with Ms. Daly’s cornball humor. It had to do with carbon.)
1 straw (reusable, my BFF Birdie made sure of it)
2 legs (to run with if things got too explosive)
1 bucket (to spit out the cornstarch)
2 best friends (1 to hold the fire extinguisher and 1 to cheer me on)
1 glass of water (to rinse out my mouth after the demo)
1 big bowl of water (safety, duh!)
1 fire blanket (Unlike Supergirl, the girl of steel, I’m fully human.)

Ms. Daly secured the blowtorch onto a nearby desk. With its attachable base, it looked like a missile.    
“It’s ready,” she declared. Soon a 2,000-