Oobleck is the favorite stuff for both adults and children. Creating Oobleck and playing with it is a great sensory activity for kids.
The positive part of ‘Oobleck Science Activity’ is: it requires very less time to prepare using just 2-3 ingredients. Hence, it is fascinating to learn some simple Oobleck science any time while children’s play.
Oobleck is a gooey substance i.e. first introduced through the book of Dr Seuss, Bartholomew and the Oobleck.
Oobleck is a wonderful substance and have very unique properties. There are different ways to make Oobleck.
In this post, I have introduced a simple and easy way to create oobleck, which makes the best oobleck recipe.
Believe me, you and your children are going to have a great fun while making this fascinating Oobleck.
Oobleck Recipe: A Great Science Fair Project
Here are the Oobleck ingredients:
1) Corn Starch
2) Water
3) Food Coloring (a few drops of food coloring in different colors of your choice. We chose pink, yellow (dark and light), blue, and green colors)
4) Four small Bowls and a big bowl
5) A Spoon
What are the simple science concepts we come across while performing this activity?
Oobleck recipe sounds simple but it has a lot of scientific properties in it. For example:
1) Viscosity
2) Pressure (How pressure changes the properties of a few materials)
3) Liquids
4) Solids
Simple Step-by-step instructions to prepare Oobleck Recipe
Step-1:
Take a small glass bowl and pour little amount of water in it.
Then, add corn starch to it in little amounts. Here, you can use a spoon to mix corn starch with water. If you want, you can use your own fingers to mix up the oobleck mixture.
Sep-2:
As a second step, when you are about to see the consistency, remember to add the rest of the required amount of corn starch very slowly. At this stage, you must put your fingers into it in order to bring the right consistency.
You may be thinking what the right consistency of oobleck recipe is! Well, let me tell you.
The state of mixture where you can see and feel it as a liquid and solid at the same time is the right consistency of an oobleck recipe.
So, until you get the right consistency you need to add corn starch to the water slowly and mix up the mixture with your hands.
Step-3:
Adjust the consistency to its right state of mixture. If the mixture requires more corn starch for right consistency, add it.
If you went wrong in getting right mixture by adding more amount of corn starch, then add water again in little amounts. Such that you can adjust the consistency. Children can have a lot of fun while adding these ingredients to get the right consistency.
Step-4:
Follow the same instructions mentioned in steps 1-3 to all the rest of the bowls and prepare five oobleck recipes in total.
Step-5:
Now, it is time to bring the food coloring into picture. We used light and dark yellow colors, green color, pink color, and blue color food colors.
It is the most fun step during the experiment. Stirring food color is the hands-on sensory experience for children.
That’s it, you are done with preparing amazing oobleck in your bowl.
Here are some fun ideas to handle and play with oobleck:
- Make enough Oobleck
- Put your fingers into the Oobleck and grab it and observe how it slips out of your fingers
- Grab a little amount of oobleck and store it in a container. Then, throw it over any flat surface
Have fun and try to come up with your own ideas to play with oobleck.
How to Make Dancing Oobleck
To add more fun to this experiment, we tried dancing Oobleck. If you have a large speaker or woofer – you can put a plastic wrapper on top of it. Place the Oobleck substance you prepared in the plastic wrapper.
And then play your favorite beat song – you could see the Oobleck dancing for the beats coming out from the speaker.
The vibrations would cause the substance to shake and it will look as if the Oobleck is dancing for the beats.
Key Questions to discuss during the Activity
Check out the questions that come in use to discuss with your children while preparing oobleck.
1) In which state of matter oobleck exists?
2) Does it show both solid and liquid properties?
3) Is it similar to quicksand?
4) Does oobleck sticky to your hands? If so, why?
5) Is it a substance or solution?
6) Why does it slips away from your hand?
7) Does it make a variety of shapes?
8) What happens when you give pressure by squeezing oobleck in your hands?
9) What is the result when you release the pressure?
10) Is there any other substance that resembles oobleck?
Clear Up the Mess Work
Once your children done with playing Oobleck, wash off the experiment table using water. It will go off easily if you use more water.
If you want to throw off the Oobleck mixture into the sink, just add more water to the mixture and make it watery. Such that it will easily go into the sink without any blockages.
If there are any tough stains of corn starch, soak them with plain water for a while and again rub off using a sponge or cleaning cloth.
Oobleck Science
Oobleck is such a magical stuff that exhibits both solid and liquid properties. It is a great science ingredient that explains about states of matter i.e. the relationship between liquids and solids.
Also, it shows how force and pressure impacts the state of a matter apart from temperature.
We can even discuss about various Newton’s concepts plus Issac Newton’s findings.
According to Issac Newton’s discoveries, liquids flow at consistent and predicate rates. But oobleck does not show such properties as liquid shows.
Because it shows both liquid and solid properties. It act as a solid when you apply pressure and flows like a liquid when left untouched.
Technically, researchers stated that oobleck is a ‘Suspension’, which means the starch molecules does not dissolve in the water.
They just stay suspended in the water because the starch molecules trap the water molecules and thus making the mixture stable.
Questions Related to Oobleck Recipe
A: Oobleck is an awesome lightweight mixture that exhibits both liquid and solid properties. Hence, oit is known as a non-Newtonian fluid. When you dip your fingers into the mixture, you feel it as a liquid and when you apply pressure by squeezing it, you feel it as a solid. Slime is a soggy and oozy gelatinous substance. Kids love to play with slime will also love playing with oobleck. But they both show different properties by nature.
A: Absolutely Yes! You can make fascinating oobleck using baby powder as well. It looks exactly like the one made out of corn starch. Because it shows the consistent oobleck properties as of regular corn starch recipe.
A: Yes, Oobleck is edible when it is made under clean and hygienic environment using corn starch. But you will not find it tasty.
A: Corn starch is a thickening agent when used in liquid solutions like sauces, gravies, soups, etc. In order to witness a paste like consistency, you need to mix corn starch to the liquids at very low temperatures.
A: One cup of water to two cups of corn starch is the right ratio to make a good and perfect Oobleck. Even if you want to prepare Oobleck in larger batches, follow the same ratio of ingredients. And then stir the mixture using spoon until you feel the smooth texture.
