You Could Make Oobleck Dance at the Library this Summer

If you have children in your house between the ages of four and thirteen, chances are you have experienced the joy of making various messy slime, and slime-like projects inspired by YouTube. I mean, it's great to finally use all that cornstarch that's been sitting in the pantry. But, the demand for more experiments from my daughter shows no signs of slowing.

Along with slimes made from liquid starch, shaving cream and all of the food coloring in the house (don't tell mom), our kitchen table is often the site of a busy Oobleck factory.

For the uninitiated, Oobleck is a gooey substance that gets its name from the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. More specifically, Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid made of cornstarch and water. It's really cool stuff. It'll run through your fingers like slime, but if you hit it, it's like hitting something solid.

Typically, liquids take on the shape of the container they are poured into. We call these ‘normal liquids’ Newtonian fluids. But some fluids don’t follow this rule. We call these ‘strange liquids’ non-Newtonian fluids....Non-Newtonian fluids change their viscosity or flow behaviour under stress. If you apply a force to such fluids (say you hit, shake or jump on them), the sudden application of stress can cause them to get thicker and act like a solid, or in some cases it results in the opposite behaviour and they may get runnier than they were before. Remove the stress (let them sit still or only move them slowly) and they will return to their earlier state. -ScienceLearn.org

 

This summer the Siouxland Libraries will be offering kids a chance to see if they can make Oobleck dance. It's all part of the Libraries Rock! Summer Reading Program, Making Waves. Kids in Grades K through 5 will have the opportunity to learn about the science of sound with hands-on experiments at various library sites in June.

• Monday, June 4 2:30–3:30 PM Caille Branch
• Tuesday, June 5 10:30–11:30 AM Ronning Branch
• Tuesday, June 5 2:30–3:30 PM Downtown Library
• Wednesday, June 6 3:15–4 PM Prairie West Branch
• Thursday, June 7 2:30–3:30 PM Oak View Branch
• Friday, June 8 10:30–11:30 AM Baltic Branch
• Monday, June 25 2:30–3:30 PM Brandon Community Library
• Tuesday, June 26 3:00–4:00 PM Hartford Branch
• Wednesday, June 27 3:00–4:00 PM Colton Branch
• Thursday, June 28 2:00–3:00 PM Split Rock Park
• Friday, June 29 10:30–11:30 AM Crooks Branch

For more information, you can call the Siouxland Libraries’ Downtown Library, 367-8700, or visit siouxlandlib.org.

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