Kate the Chemist: A passion for science education

Transcript formatted for readability. 

Kate Biberdorf: If you have an emotional response to something, you're more likely to form a memory. And so what I do with my demonstrations is tap into that visual piece, show the students who are having a hard time learning other ways.

Show them how cool it is, and they can actually visualize the signs.

[Students counting down followed by applause]

Kate Biberdorf (to crowd): Aw, come on!

Jenna Liberto: Kate Biberdorf is a Professor of Science for the University of Texas. These days, she's better known as Kate the Chemist. Her explosive and entertaining experiments have taken her from the college campus to network television. She shares a passion with Notre Dame's College of Science for teaching audiences of all ages to fall in love with scientific discovery.

That's what made her an ideal choice to deliver the College of Science Christmas Lecture. I talked with Kate ahead of her lecture
for this episode of Notre Dame Stories.

[Intro music]

Jenna Liberto: Welcome to Notre Dame Stories, the official podcast of the University of Notre Dame. Here we take you along the journey
where curiosity becomes a breakthrough for people using knowledge to be a means for good in the world.

[Outro music]

Jenna Liberto: Kate, it's so great to have you here at Notre Dame. You grew up not far from here, is that right?

Kate Biberdorf: Yes.

Jenna Liberto: So welcome to South Bend, but you've probably been in the area.

Kate Biberdorf: A couple times.

Jenna Liberto: Tell us about where you grew up.

Kate Biberdorf: I'm from Kalamazoo, Michigan, so it's about an hour drive away from here...-ish. And I came to Notre Dame a lot. I was here in 2018 for BCCE, it's a chemistry conference that I went to. And my uncle worked for Notre Dame so I was on campus a lot growing up.

Jenna Liberto: Really?

Kate Biberdorf: Yea, he was a chef, he was a head chef here, so we had some good food.

Jenna Liberto:  Awesome.

Kate Biberdorf: It was really fun.

Jenna Liberto: Well, welcome back.

Kate Biberdorf: Thank you!

Jenna Liberto: Thinking back to those days growing up in Kalamazoo, when did your love for science start—is it that far back?

Kate Biberdorf: Well, okay, so I get this question a lot, but I've always been inquisitive in nature, so I wanted to know why. How? Like, how does this work? I drove my parents crazy with those questions. But it wasn't until my sophomore year of high school when I met Mrs. Kelly Palsrock, love you, and she was the best teacher ever. And she would run around the classroom, light stuff on fire. And honestly, ever since I was 15, I knew I wanted to be a chemist because of this passionate, wonderful, wonderful woman.

Jenna Liberto: We are the “Bill Nye the Science Guy” generation, right? There was no female equivalent. None. Until you.

Kate Biberdorf: Well, I mean, yea, I guess, but there were, there were others out there. That's the thing, like, they're out there. The
female scientists are out there. But for whatever reason I was able to break through the mold just a tiny bit and get on TV and show that you can be a girl, and like Louis Vuitton, and breathe fire, and love science... Like, it's okay to like all those different things.

Jenna Liberto: Did you feel like there was a gap there as a young person? There's this person I want to emulate
and she doesn't exist, or at least not in a sphere where I can watch her.

Kate Biberdorf: I don't think I realized that. Like, I don't think I put it to words when I was younger that there wasn't somebody out there because you're just so used [to it]. I mean, this is what, you know, Bill Nye is out there, Mr. Wizard was before him. And so it wasn't really until I started being a professor at the University of Texas—hook 'em horns—and I was bored. I was just teaching and I had this extra time and I started doing demonstrations. I started going out to schools, and then they invited me on TV. And once I started looking around for it, it really hit me. I was like, There isn't anyone here.

There's not a single person that looks like me, acts like me, and loves science like me. And so when the people called and said, "Do you want to do national TV?" I'm like, "Hell yes, absolutely."

Jenna Liberto: I have to tell you, I was watching you on the Today Show with my girls, they're nine and six, and especially my nine-year-old, she couldn't get close enough to the screen. She just was so enthralled. What is it about that age? That not quite pre-teen, that’s such an important time for girls.

Kate Biberdorf: Right. So is that fourth grade? Fifth grade?

Jenna Liberto: Third grade.

Kate Biberdorf: Third grade. Okay, wonderful. So, yeah, it's right there. That's the sweet spot. Like the third through fifth grade, right before puberty, before middle school, usually, where they're still passionate, their brain is starting to function. They're starting to understand that, hey, there's science behind magic, and they can really start to understand what you're saying. And that's, honestly, when I think we need to jump in so fast. So like, thank you for showing the videos. I really appreciate that. Like, way to mom, that is amazing. 

Jenna Liberto: Okay, good, good, good.

Kate Biberdorf: Because what I'm trying to do is essentially interact with as many young girls, and students in general, but young girls and try to get them so passionate about the sciences that when they inevitably get a question wrong in class, we've all done it, right? When they inevitably get the question wrong, they have enough confidence to just brush it off and move on and not think like, I'm not a math person or I'm not a science person. It's like, "No, you can do all of this."

Jenna Liberto: Absolutely.

Kate Biberdorf: All of this. But we all make mistakes. Like, it's just part of learning.

Jenna Liberto: It is. Talk about the students that you teach at the University and the students that'll be here tonight, at the college age and what is it about that phase of life that energizes you about your work? Or did you learn from them to figure out what you should ... what you wanted your road show to be?

Kate Biberdorf: I think a little bit of both, right? So my students are 18 years old. They're the babies, they're freshmen. They're learning laundry and Stoichiometry at the same time. Like, so it's just such a wonderful phase of life to watch them, because when they first walk into my classroom, they are still high school seniors, like, I can see it on their face. And by the time they leave now, which yesterday was my last class at U.T. for the semester, and it was the last day of class. And they're walking out and they're adults.

They are mature, like, what they have gone through in those three months, they just grow up so much. And it's so cool to watch them succeed and realize their dreams are possible. They might actually be a doctor, like they are getting close to that goal. And so it's really fun to be part of that. And I love doing that.

But when I do these big shows like this, it's where I can play with the fire and the liquid nitrogen and I can kind of step back from the classroom, because in the classroom it’s 75 minutes, I have to teach these topics, we're getting through a curriculum like, it's really rushed. Whereas this, it's like, "Do you want to come here and give a Christmas lecture and just have fun with science?" I'm like, "Yes, 100%. Sign me up."

I've got nine amazing demos that I've got planned for tonight. I'm just, I'm so excited to do it.

[crowd cheering]

Jenna Liberto: And talk about how you really engage all the senses in creating this love for science. I mean, visually, of course, it's stunning what you do, but there's smells, there's fields of course.

Kate Biberdorf: Yes

Jenna Liberto: And that's an important component to making sure young people fall in love with their future career.

Kate Biberdorf: Right. Absolutely. So I am a big person who believes in VARK, it’s these different learning styles. And it just, it just kind of says that people kind of pick up information differently. So you might be more of a visual learner or maybe oral or maybe reading. And so I love the fact that these demonstrations can actually show chemistry a little bit because I can't hand you an atom or a molecule, that's really hard to visualize. But if I take a paint can and shake it up and the lid hits the ceiling,

[crowd cheering.]

Kate Biberdorf (to crowd): Aw, come on!

Kate Biberdorf: My students are like, What's up with that? How did that happen? And so the theory behind it, it's William
James's theory of emotional memory. And basically what that says is if you have an emotional response to something,
you're more likely to form a memory. 

And so what I do with my demonstrations is tap into that visual piece. Show the students are having a hard time learning other ways, show them how cool it is and they can actually visualize the science. And then the research shows you literally have 60 seconds after you do the experiment to get them to learn.

Jenna Liberto: Wow.

Kate Biberdorf: Yea, it's really fast. And so like, I breathe fire and then I'm like, Heat. Work. Thermodynamics ....
just as fast as I can to shove the knowledge into their brain, because after that, it kind of slows down and you lose their attention again.

Jenna Liberto: But you're right, You're creating a memory, and that's powerful.

Kate Biberdorf: It's very powerful. And it's just like you said, like the smell could be it. They could remember the sulfur smell
or maybe like that burnt sugar smell and that's enough for them that when they smell it again somewhere, it's going to trigger the memory. They're going to know what's up. They’re going to explain it to their friends. Probably not, but hopefully. Like, a girl can dream.

Jenna Liberto: Now your audience tonight, and one of the really exciting things that Notre Dame is doing is providing an event like this
not only for our campus community but the wider community. So truly, people from ages five to 105 will be here at the Christmas lecture.

Why is that so important to engage? Not just not just students, but students at every level and our community?

Kate Biberdorf: Well, I think it's possible that even at 100 or 105, maybe you don't know how much you love science yet. So it's always a challenge for me if I can get people to like chemistry just a little bit more than when I walked in the door, it's a success. And so if I have somebody here who's five years old just picking up the word “beaker,” or maybe they hear the word “molecule” for the first time, they have no idea what it means, but they've heard it, right? Whereas the 100-year-old, or maybe the 80-year-old—let's drop it down just a little bit—where the 80-year-old might still be interested in like, "Hey, I've always wondered that. For 80 years, I've wondered why
this is or how that works."

And it's a way to just kind of sneak that in. And even at 80, you can decide that you want to be a scientist. And so I am here for everybody. Anybody who wants to show up and watch me do science like, you are my person. Like, let's go.

Jenna Liberto: We're so glad you're here. Thank you for talking to me.

Kate Biberdorf: Of course, thank you so much. This is such a pleasure and honor, truly. 

Jenna Liberto: Appreciate it.

Kate Biberdorf (to crowd): You ready? One, two, three. Go.

[crowd cheering]

Jenna Liberto: After our chat, Kate wowed a packed audience in the Jordan Hall of Science. There was even overflow in the lecture
hall next door. She used a sensory experience to enhance learning. She breathes fire, we learn about thermodynamics. She blows the lid off a paint can, we learn about chemical reactions. To end the night, an Instagram-worthy moment when Kate was inducted as an honorary member of the College of Science.

Thanks for joining us for Notre Dame Stories, the official podcast of the University of Notre Dame. Notre Dame Stories is created by the Office of Public Affairs and Communications. It's written and produced by Andy Fuller with content coordination from Staci Stickovich. This episode was edited by Michael Wiens with Videography by Tony Fuller and Zach Dudka. Original music is by Alex Mansour, and I'm your host, Jenna Liberto.