
School started last week and since then, we got to do a lot of experiments in science class, and my favorite one yet is getting to observe and play with OOBLECK.We got to do it a few days ago.
It is just really made of corn starch, water an optionally food coloring.
(The Oobleck in the picture is not really the real Oobleck. It is just dried up. So that is why it looks hard. If you read the other paragraphs then you will know why it looks this way. Thanks!)
Based on the book by Dr. Seuss "Bartholomew and the OOBLECK", Oobleck is made by magicians who say magic words and then it falls out of the sky. Bartholomew, the protagonist in the story stops the Oobleck from falling and saves the world. But that is in the story. In the real world, which means my science class, we got to play with it. It is not really as sticky as they say it is in the book BUT it really is as slimy, gooey and nasty looking as they describe in the book. We did not get to make it because our teachers say it is too dirty to make and we might make a mess around the whole school, so they did it instead.
We did get to play with it though in groups of four and our task or objective was to distinguish if Oobleck is actually a solid or liquid. I think it is more of a liquid though some, not all of my classmates think it is more of a solid. Anyway if you cut it with a fork or spoon, it will just stick back together, kind of like water (water does not have a definite shape) except the sticking back process is really, really slow. When the time for playing was almost done, one of my classmates from the other group stuck a fork in their oobleck in the large container and made a hole in it. The Oobleck started oozing out like molten lava onto the ground. YUCK! They of course got in trouble but they did not have to clean it up because when Oobleck dries, it becomes powdery and it just gets carried away by the wind although it takes a long time. So to minimize the waiting time for it to dry up on the ground, my teacher (Ms. Hillman) asked them to put the container filled with oozing Oobleck onto the plants nearby so that the plants can suck it all up. (Probably does not kill plants).
Kids of all ages can play with Oobleck because it is not poisonous and because it is just really fun to touch and feel cold gooey liquid (or some people like to call solid) in your hand. Actually you can even taste Oobleck. Some of my classmates tried it and they said it taste like nothing. But my teacher said, "Don't eat it, or you will have a really bad stomachache" The only bad thing about playing with it is that it gets messy.
Most parents will probably not like Oobleck because according to my teacher: "Oobleck clogs up drains, it's messy to make and it can also make the skin really dry."
Yup it is really messy, but we got to bring some home anyway. Maybe about two or three tablespoons is what my teacher gave us. Not a lot, but if I got more it would have been a disaster because those two or three tablespoons that I brought home from school started dripping out of its taped-sealed container once I was outside of the school building. I tried to stop the dripping with my hands and it made them so dirty. It nows sits on the table in my bedroom. It is quite solid now but if you give it a gentle touch it will turn into powder.
In this
youtube video is a video of people walking on
Oobleck. It just does not have any food coloring.
Until now the Oobleck is still in our room. I don't know what to do with it. It might come in handy someday, who knows.