Watch out, this one is messy! This experiment was used to help the students learn about atoms and their interactions with each other in different phases of matter. Each student was given a plastic bowl with cornstarch, water, and food coloring. They mixed the materials together to create magic mud, a suspension. We tried to ensure throughout the excitement that each student understood that a suspension is a solid when under a force and a liquid in the absence of a force.

The students loved getting messy and playing with the magic mud. That being said, I would recommend taking precautions for clean up. We lined the tables with plastic table cloths or trash bags to minimize the damage. A lot of the mud got on the floor, and clean up was a bit of a mess. We told the students at the beginning of the class that the cleanest table would get a prize at the end, and that seemed to help decrease the mess a decent amount. Overall, the experiment was fun and the students seemed to really enjoy it.