Thursday, May 22, 2014

Oobleck Maths Investigation

So this term, we are learning about changes. Whether they are permanent or reversible. Whether a chemical reaction is taking place or a physical reaction.  After we made oobleck in class and watched a You Tube clip, someone in Room 1 had a though. "I wonder if we could fill our school swimming pool with Oobleck for the school gala?"  An interesting question you might say. Apart from Aunty Tina not being too happy with what it would do to the swimming pool, we decided to investigate exactly how much it would cost to do this.

We know it takes 2 packets of cornflour (4 cups) plus 2 cups of water to fill (1 litre) an ice-cream container.  I packet of cornflour costs $1.80

LEARNING TASK: Accurately measure the swimming pool (all three dimensions) and calculate ow may litres it will hold and how much it would cost to fill with oobleck.





Results: At a  minimum cost of $125,000 we decided it was not a viable option to do this. We then had a suggestion to maybe fill a paddling pool.  Watch the space!!!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Science Learning Term 2 - Oobleck

Check out the mess we managed to make in Room 1 on Thursday.  It was lot of fun I must say. We were making oobleck and hypothesising about what state of matter it could be categorised as. We discovered it fluctuated between being a liquid and solid depending on the amount of pressure (force) that was applied? But what is the scientific term for this? Can these substances be brought back to their original form?