Rainy Day Activity: Science with Dr. Seuss

by Stephanie Possehl One of my favorite courses to teach for CTD’s Saturday Enrichment Program is “Young Author’s Club.” It is beyond difficult to pick my favorite children’s authors, however, Dr. Seuss books hold a special place in my heart. Here is a fun story with a cool science experiment that you can do at home!  For this Rainy Day Activity, students will combine reading with a bit of science in making this Dr. Seussian substance! Bartholomew and the Oobleck was written in 1949 by Dr. Seuss. The book follows the adventures of a small boy named Bartholomew. He must rescue his kingdom (the Kingdom of Didd) from a sticky, icky substance called “oobleck.” Oobleck was capable of gumming up an entire kingdom, but it’s also something fun you can make at home! While it’s not quite “gummy,” or edible for that matter, it does have interesting properties of both liquid and solid. It can look and feel like a liquid or jelly, but when you squeeze it in your hand, it will seem like a solid.  So...what is matter and how does it behave? It normally takes around 10-15 minutes to make this science project. First, mix 1 part water with 1.5 to 2 parts cornstarch. You may wish to start with one cup of water and one and a half cups of cornstarch, then work in more cornstarch slowly. This can make the oobleck more solid. It will take about 10-12 minutes of mixing to get the oobleck the right consistency. If you really want to make some silly oobleck, try mixing in different drops of food coloring…this is a wonderful color experiment!  Here’s a great question for a family discussion, “how can our senses help us figure out what happens when we mix together certain materials?” Here’s another recipe for oobleck: Materials:

• 1 cup of water
• ½ cup of white school glue
• ½ cup of liquid Borax

Steps:

1. Pour ½ cup of water in a large mixing bowl. You can add green food coloring, here, too!
2. Add ½ cup of white school glue to the water and stir until it is all mixed up.
3. In another bowl, mix about a ½ cup of water and a ½ cup of the Borax and stir again until it’s all mixed up.
4. Slowly pour the water and Borax mixture into the glue and water mixture. You will want to stir this until it forms one big, gummy, slippery glob of oobleck!

Both recipes will create interesting textures. It might be fun to make both and then determine how the ooblecks compare to each other. You can put the oobleck into molded shapes (think cookie cutters, muffin tins) but watch the mixture turn back into a glob as soon as you remove it!  An interesting question for young scientists might be, “How does studying the attributes or properties of objects help us to understand them, organize them based on solid/liquid/gas, and answer questions about them?” If you still can’t get enough of Dr. Seuss, log into his website at http://www.seussville.com and really explore! Between the games, activities, book lists and short video clips, this website can keep you busy during a full, rainy weekend! And of course, be on the lookout for any of my “Young Author’s Club” courses through SEP when we really study Dr. Seuss as an author, artist and person! Stephanie Possehl is currently a first grade teacher in Grayslake, IL. She has taught first grade for eleven years. Possehl received her Bachelor’s degree at Illinois State University and her Master’s degree at Roosevelt University. Interested in hands-on science, Possehl has been an assistant director and teacher for Camp Inventions through her school district over the course of her career. She has taught enrichment classes for CTD’s Summer and Saturday Enrichment Programs for five years. This summer she is teaching "Smelly Science" for the CTD Summer Leapfrog Program.