STEM
Oobleck
A hands-on science workshop where participants make their own Oobleck, a cornflour-and-water mixture that acts like a solid when you hit it and a liquid when you don't.
What happens
Participants mix their own batch of Oobleck from cornflour and water, then get stuck into finding out how it behaves: squeezing it, hitting it, letting it run through their fingers. Punch it and it turns solid, leave it still and it flows like a liquid.
We talk through why it acts the way it does, what a non-Newtonian fluid actually is, and set up small challenges to test it further, dancing Oobleck on a speaker, or walking across a tray of it if there’s space. Aprons are provided, and it is a properly messy session.
Benefits
It makes a genuinely strange bit of physics something participants can feel with their hands rather than just be told about, and the mess is part of the appeal rather than something to avoid. It works for a wide age range, with younger children just needing an adult alongside them.
The details
- Who it's for
- Fun for all ages, curious kids, families and science-loving adults; under-8s should be supervised by an adult.
- We bring
- Our team to run the session, plus the cornflour, mixing bowls, aprons and cleaning supplies, nothing for you to source.
What people get out of it
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Solid one second, liquid the next
Punch it and it turns hard, leave it still and it flows, a strange bit of physics.
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Hands-on, not a lecture
Participants mix and test their own batch rather than watching a demonstration.
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Properly messy
Aprons are provided, and getting a bit of it everywhere is part of the fun.