Welcome to Make a Gooey Thing! In which I walk you through these weird substances I regularly make in my work with kids. This week, we’re making Oobleck.
Oobleck, traditionally made in middle school science classrooms from cornstarch and water during units on phases of matter, is a non-Newtonian substance, like quicksand or Silly Putty. It’s not a solid OR a liquid! Scientific American explains:
Applying pressure to the mixture increases its viscosity (thickness). A quick tap on the surface of Oobleck will make it feel hard, because it forces the cornstarch particles together. But dip your hand slowly into the mix, and see what happens—your fingers slide in as easily as through water. Moving slowly gives the cornstarch particles time to move out of the way.
You can make a whole lesson about this if you want, or make up a story that it’s a secret substance from space. Or not. The six-year-old I made this with thoroughly did not care about the phases of matter represented in her hands, but she have a thoroughly good time. The point is not really to make anything with the Oobleck. It’s just a cool substance to feel and play with. The one thing you can make is a mess, but it cleans up really easily.
As I said, Oobleck is just cornstarch and water, plus optional food coloring for maximum fun. This box of cornstarch from Stop and Shop cost $2. It’s a gluten-free activity, because it’s made from corn, if that matters to you. Lay out some newspaper to cover the table to minimize clean-up. Make it in some sort of baking dish. Cake pans work really well.
Mix the cornstarch and water together. You’re going to use a roughly 1:1 ratio, but add as needed until you reach a consistency that isn’t too watery, but is liquid-y enough to be able to run your hands around in.
Now let the small human have at it.
When the small human has begun to understand the ridiculous fun that this substance is, dig out whatever food coloring you can find. Put a few drops in, and let them mix it around. It makes very cool designs.
The small human’s hands will be whatever color the food coloring is afterwards, but it will come off with some scrubbing, some time in a chlorinated pool or just by waiting it out for a little bit.
They can make it rain Oobleck.
They can have fun spattering it over the newspaper.
This is a stroke of brilliance and I played no part in making it happen.
And you can send cute pictures to their parents.
We saved it in a ziplock bag to play with again, which was definitely the hardest part, because non-newtonioan substances don’t really pour so well. But it worked eventually, and the next day we added some more water and cornstarch and food coloring, and we were right back to where we were the day before.
Did you also read them the story of Bartholomew and the Oobleck? It has a great environmental protection message.
No I didn’t know about this! Sounds awesome, though
— tell me more?
A truly excellent Dr. Seuss!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_and_the_Oobleck
Yes! I suppose the story is actually about the King’s need for absolute power but I always understood it as a commentary about the effects of acid rain in the absence of proper clean air laws. I was quite the little environmentalist.
HOW do I not know about an environmentalist Dr. Seuss book??? I lived and breathed the Lorax as a kid, and my dad is an environmental science teacher. It’s like we got to thneeds and said, “Look no further.”
My initial reaction is groooooossssssss but I can’t wait to try it with my niece.
Us aunts have to find ways to entertain these tiny humans.
Hm, yes. But what if there was a kiddie pool involved..
If there’s a kiddie pool involved, you can walk on it!
just clean it as soon as you are done because we filled a pool with it a few summers ago so the kids could run on water but a week later the whole camp reeked of rot… so naturally we made staff dive into it.
Perfect timing. I just said yes to childminding my friend’s kid on Friday, thinking ‘hope he wants to play Settlers of Catan’. And now I have *two* activities we can do!!
CATAN. That is all.
I remember this stuff! I think I made this while on an elementary school field trip to the Space Science Centre. I defenitely did not get anything science-y from it though. It was just fun to play with.
Ah! I remember this stuff! In Girl Scouts we went to CoSi and they had shallow tubs of it set up and you could run across it! Totally blew our minds.
The memories… I think I saw this on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood or some other PBS kids show when I was really young. It was an interesting project. This stuff definitely kept my interest for more than a few days.
Reasons to become a scientist: you can get paid to play with oobleck all day. No, really.
I LOVE OOBLECK. So much. Every few months I pretend the kids want to play with it again so I can make another batch.
I’ve done the walking on Oobleck thing too, and if you cut the cornstarch with play sand IT LOOKS LIKE QUICKSAND. Cue the dramatic adventures and barely making it across the kiddie pool alive.
I made this with my kindergartners a few years ago! We *did* read Bartholomew and the Oobleck first. I will also say that my roommates loved it as much as the kids.