Dr. Suess is one of our favorite children’s writers! His books draw in our attention and keep us coming back for more. We even use them to practice early reading with books like Hop on Pop. This super simple experiment creating Oobleck is a play off of Suess’ book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Take a look at the video, and when you’re ready, check out the instructions below so you can do it yourself at home!
This experiment can get a bit messy, so we suggest covering your table with a towel or sheet. If you do happen to get some oobleck on your table, let it dry for a few hours and it should scrape off easily.
Experiment Instructions
For printer-friendly instructions for this experiment, click HERE to download the lesson plan.
What’s the STEAM?
So, what’s the science behind this experiment? When cornstarch and water mix, it forms a non-Newtonian fluid, which is a substance that’s neither a liquid nor solid. This type of substance doesn’t follow Newton’s law of viscosity that maintains a constant viscosity independent of stress.
This anomaly allows the fluid to be both solid and liquid and neither solid nor liquid! If you manipulate the mixture with your hand by balling it up, it comes together as a solid. Open your hand and that same “ball” runs through your fingers like slime. It’s both amazing to watch and fun to play with. At one point, we added the mixture to our beakers where it seemed to have hardened at the bottom, but as soon as we turned the container upside down, the mixture ran out! Go ahead, try it!
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