Chemical Challenge and Oobleck

Today students started with a challenge list of items and had to classify them. They had to tell me whether the stuff was elements, compounds, or mixtures and then tell me the symbol, formula, or composition. First place in second period went to Brittany, Gabby, Chris, and Taryn. In third period, first place was a tie between Riley and Sabrina and Brittany and Kathy. Congratulations.

We finished up notes by talking about boiling points, vapor pressure, and how heat changes all of those things. We are looking at a test Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

We finished this Friday with an OObleck lab. Oobleck is so named because of the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck, but oobleck is a cool colloid because in some cases it acts like a liquid and in other instances it acts as a solid.

Students experimented with it and tried a variety of tasks including the hammer test, the burn test, pour and conformity and others. Rachael is trying the pour test and writing her results at the same time! She thinks this makes oobleck more like a liquid.

Austin was very gung ho about trying the bounce test for his Oobleck. His conclusion is that oobleck bounces so it must be more like a solid. Oobleck even has its own Wikipedia article. For more information and more exact ways to make it, check out this article.