Be careful walking in the girls’ hall, you never know what’s coming! Just the other day there were girls with oobleck-covered hands heading to the bathroom.
What is oobleck, you ask? It’s a mixture of cornstarch and water and it was in the second grade classroom because the girls were learning about the three states of matter: liquid, solid, and gas.
Everything in the world is made up of matter, they learned, and as humans, we need matter to survive. They delved deeper into each state, and then came up with their own examples for each category. Then they rolled up their sleeves and got to the really fun part.
The oobleck demonstrated two different states, liquid and solid as Tzippi Weiss explained, “When you hold it, it’s hard (solid) and when you let go it’s a liquid.”
The girls were fascinated at the way it would change so rapidly. Esther Shimunov enjoyed it so much that she was heard saying, “I can’t wait to make oobleck at home!”
Their other experiment showed them the property of gas. For that, they combined vinegar and baking soda in a water bottle and quickly covered the top with a balloon.
“The vinegar and baking soda created bubbles,” explained Rochel Hirsch, “then the balloon filled with air.” That experiment aided the girls in visualizing what gas is, because it is the only state of matter that can’t be seen with the eye. Seeing the balloon fill up shows them the effect, so they know the gas is there.