Strange Acting Goop

Group activity Children sit around a table and each is given the ingredients to make their own goop.

Materials

Table and chairs poster (or pull-up banner) with details on the experiments (as per text below) placed next to pull up banner on making science make sense (re-use last year’s banners).

Ingredients

Cornstarch
Large bowl
Water mixing spoon

What to do

• Put one cup of cornstarch into the bowl.
• Add half cup of water
• Mix well
• Slowly dip your finger into the gooey mixture. Grab some in your hand and pour it back into the bowl. Now try slapping it hard with your hand or a heavy spoon? What happens?
• Next grab some in your hand again and squeeze. What happens?

What this means

The strange acting goop allows us to learn about molecules. A molecule is one of the basic units of matter. It is the smallest particles into which a substance can be divided and still have the chemical identity of the original substance.

When you have mixed the ingredients well, the strange acting goop molecules tangle up together to form a ball. When slapped quickly, the strange acting goop molecules does not splatter. In this way the mixture behaves more like a solid. When you slowly squeeze the mixture in your hand, the goop feels like a solid inside your hand. Yet it slides out through your fingers back into the bowl. The moleules are now being re-arranged and the mixture now behaves more like a liquid.