The Purpose:
Before our lab, we were learning about the three basic phases of matter, solid, gas and liquid. The purpose of this lab was to learn more about the different phases and to get a feel of what doing labs will be like. Oobleck was a good choice to learn more about matter because it changes between two different phases right in your hands.
Looking Back:
Our experiment turned out pretty well since it was just mixing cornstarch and water together. When we added enough water it became this weird slimy blob. The mixture itself looked really clumpy at first but as we added more it became more a thick liquid.
I had done this experiment before in elementary school but back then I had no idea what was going on and it was just cool to touch. This time though, there was more background and I actually realized how weird oobleck is. It's not really a liquid or a solid. When we first mixed the cornstarch fully with water it didn't really make the consistency we wanted, there were large clumps of dry cornstarch and just water around it. We were afraid to add too much water because Andrew told us that we needed to add just enough to get the right consistency. Every time Ash added a bit of water everyone at our table would be like "Okay! Okay! That's enough! Stop!" panicking at the thought we might ruin it. After we repeated that we finally got something that seemed right. It just felt like a thick liquid but then Bradon came over with a hammer and smashed the what I thought seemed like a liquid. The strangest thing was it didn't react like one. It didn't make a huge splash all over our table it just stiffened beneath the hammer and Bradon removed the hammer without any oobleck sticking to it.
The oobleck also didn't make as big of a mess as I thought it would. When we were playing with it we kept dripping it all over the table and we kept reprimanding each other to be careful and to not make such a big mess. Then Andrew came over and just quickly swiped off everything on the table and let it flow all back in to the bowl. There was of course drops left on the table but it wasn't that big of a mess anymore. Whenever pressure was applied it seemed like it reacted more like a solid but when you just let it be, it acted more like a liquid.
Doing it at this age, rather then as an 9 year old was much more enjoyable and interesting. While I was doing this experiment I was constantly questioning what was happening rather than just playing with it. It was a fun first experiment.
Looking Beyond:
I had a lot of questions while we were doing the experiment. The basic "Why and how does it do that? " and "What's in cornstarch that makes it react that way to water?" and of course " Is it a solid or liquid?".
On a molecular level it seems like when we push the mixture together, by adding pressure, it forces the molecules together, decreasing the distance, making it more solid. While letting it flow out, gives room and time for the molecules to move around freely and stay as a liquid. So when Bradon struck the oobleck with the hammer, the sudden force pushed the molecules in the oobleck together to make it a solid. So I thought that oobleck was initially was a liquid but just became a solid when pressure was applied.
Looking Inward:
We were able to get desirable results. The mixture didn't have too much water or cornstarch so it reacted exactly as it was suppose to. I think we were able to get these results because we were really careful about everything. We didn't want to mess it up so we did the whole process very slowly and carefully. I thought I preformed well because everything went well and I didn't mess it up.
Looking Outward:
I worked with: Melany, Ash, Sammie, Natalie and Annika. I thought our whole group worked really well together, and we were on the same page throughout the whole experiment. Everyone helped with each step and we communicated with each other if one of us was making a mess or when we thought it was a good time to clean up. I contributed with the mixing and the clean up. Everything in between we were just doing on our own, just playing with the oobleck.
Looking Forward:
I don't think I would change anything if I did this lab again. Maybe, experiment more and see how different forces affect the oobleck but, from what we already did we know plenty because it was very straightforward. I liked the group I had so I would work with them again. I'm not sure if there's a way to continue this specific lab, you could go more in depth with how the mixture gets affected by pressure but I don't think I would keep going.
Take Aways:
This lab was good experience on how to act and the whole procedure of doing a lab. I learned more about matter and the different phases. How matter transitions from one phase to another.