I have had this experiment at the back of my mind for a long time, but recently read about it again and thought it might be something Meredith would have fun with now (and get why it’s so neat).
Basically, you mix up two parts of corn starch and one part water (it works best to mix it slowly and with your fingers). You can add food colouring if you want but we don’t have any so I didn’t bother.
Once it’s all mixed, it becomes something not quite a solid, but not quite a liquid either. It pours like a liquid, but when you smack it with a spoon or try to stir it quickly with your finger, it is a solid.
The girls had a lot of fun squeezing it, letting it run over their fingers, smacking it with spoons, stirring it slowly and quickly, and just generally playing with it to see how it reacted to various different things. While I mostly just set this up for fun, Meredith ended up asking some pretty insightful questions about solids and liquids, and made some observations about how this corn starch mixture is different and similar to both other liquids and other solids.
They actually took it up to the bath tub and played around in the bath tub with it for a while too, pouring it on things and experimenting. Despite how messy it looks, it actually cleans up very easily with just soap and water.
Linked to Science Tutorials at The Homeschool Coop
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Wow! This is awesome. Both of my kids would LOVE this. My baby (21 months) spent all morning mixing “experiments” in the kitchen (inspired by her older brother, no doubt). I’m thinking tomorrow morning!
Thanks so much for sharing at Tuesday Tutorials!