Shamrock Oobleck: Discovery at Home

Materials Needed:

  • Cornstarch
  • Water
  • Green sprinkles or food coloring

Directions:

  • Put ½ cup of cornstarch and ½ cup of water in a bowl.
  • Mix together the two materials with a spoon or your hand for extra sensory play!
  • add more cornstarch or water to get desired consistency.
  • Add in your green coloring, sprinkles or other add-ins.
  • Explore! Hold it in your hand, try to mold it into a ball, slap it while it's in a bowl.

How to Expand it

  • What happens when you tap the mixture with force? Do you get any oobleck on you? What happens when you try to pick up the oobleck and hold it?
  • What happens when you add different textures to the non-newtonian fluid?
  • What happens if you use cookie cutters with oobleck? Will the shape hold? Is there a way you can make the shape stay the same as the cookie cutter?
  • For a larger scale experiment, make a bucket of oobleck and try to stand in it! Will you sink if you stand still? What happens when you jump?

What do kids learn?

  • They learn opposite words like gooey and solid, warm and cold, big and small, empty and full.
  • They touch, squeeze, smell and feel, helping build connections in the brain.
  • They see chemical reactions in action, teaching cause and effect.
  • They practice using the small muscles in their hands (fine motor skills) later used for writing.
  • They measure ingredients, demonstrating volume and encouraging comparisons.
  • They experiment! When kids experiment, they're learning how to learn.
  • Science vocabulary
    • Non-Newtonian Fluid: Something that acts like both a liquid and a solid. This is a material that does not follow Newton’s Law of Viscosity, it does not maintain the same fluidity regardless of force.
    • Force: energy caused by a push or a pull, in this case, the push or pull given to the oobleck by your hand or a tool.