That's So Gross! Goo, Slime, and Oobleck!

What an icky, messy, fun time we had tonight! After hearing the beginning of Bartholomew & The Oobleck by Dr. Seuss, we set off for the GNL Laboratory and made some ourselves!

But first we dissected a baby diaper to find the polymers inside and make goo! These polymers are inside the cottony part of the diaper. They looked like tiny grains of salt when we shook them over black paper - can you see them? There were thousands! When we put them in a cup, they covered only the bottom. But when we added water, the polymers began to expand and hold onto the water. We kept pouring more and more water! Some of us held our cups upside down and the polymers didn't come out - and neither did the water! Others dumped their cups out and explored the goo with their fingers. It was yucky - but fun! We wondered what would happen to the polymers if we left one goopy cup out for a while - so we have an experiment going to find out! Check back next week!

After the diaper goo was all cleared away, we mixed equal parts of white glue and water together in a cup to make a milky liquid. The white soon turned to green with the addition of a few drops of food coloring. Then we added an equal portion of liquid starch and stirred hard, then even harder. The liquid got stickier and started to cling to the stirring stick. It became stretchy and rubbery. We'd made green slime! Ewwww! 

Last, we made the oobleck that worried Bartholomew Cubbins so much. Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup water
3/4 to 1 cup cornstarch
That's all! Some of us had a hard time getting the consistency right - a solid in the bowl, a liquid in our hands. We had lots of cornstarch though, and by the night's end, everyone had very messy hands - and a small bag of oobleck to take home!

My hands were so messy I couldn't hold my camera to take pictures! It was all so gross. And we loved it!

Special shout-out and a big "Thank you!" to GNL Super-Kid JULIA for making a new person feel so welcomed and comfortable when she knew no one. She's so lucky that you're her first friend!