Heart Warming Stories from a Teacher – Experiments in Texture

From: AutismToday.com

These stories were submitted to me to share with our readers.  They are written through the eyes of a teacher.  Please enjoy and comment!

Experiments in Texture –

Today I ran an experiment for my class. It is a simple experiment but provided interesting result from my students. They found it very entertaining and played with it for more than an hour. The original intent of the experiment was to determine whether a substance was a liquid or a solid. They had a terrible time determining the answer to the question because every time they were sure about the answer the material behaved differently.  It provided interesting textures and movement.

The material they were playing with was corn starch and water. I mixed in some food coloring to make it more interesting. Each student got his own color.  To make it I poured a cup of corn starch into a one quart zip lock bag. I added water in small increments until the mixture would flow from one end of the bag to the other, looking like an old lava lamp. I then added the food coloring. When the food coloring was sufficiently mixed I had my students pour the mixture into a paper plate and gave them spoons to play with mixture. They made a wonderful mess. The mixture was all over the table in our room. It was all over their hands and faces. Some of them even ate it. Cleanup was a breeze. I had the students put the paper plates in the waste basket. Everything that was on the table we pushed to the floor. We then vacuumed the mess up. They washed their hands and faces.  Our carpet is industrial carpet on a cement slab. You may want to do this in a kitchen and use a broom and or a mop for cleanup.

I cannot tell you how much fun my students had playing with this.

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