The Pepperdine University Chapter of the ACS Student Affiliates held a “walk on water” event as a part of our community outreach for National Chemistry Week. The nugget of an idea to make the suspension of cornstarch in water commonly known as Oobleck, a non-Newtonian fluid, grew into making the event a campus and community-wide outreach event where people could play with the Oobleck, walk on it, and learn about fluids. Hosting the event required significant planning, attention to detail, communication within the club and with the college student affairs department, coordination of group members, and overcoming other logistical hurdles. We held a work day to prepare for the event where we built the wooden frame, practiced making hundreds of pounds of Oobleck with a commercial cement mixer, and considered the details to make the event both safe and fun. As the day of the event approached, we turned our attention to the specifics of our corn starch and water sources, event publicity, and developing an educational placard. Our event was a huge success where hundreds of people played with or walked, ran, or danced on Oobleck. We present information that made our event successful and observations that would improve future events such as this.

Non-Newtonian fluids as a student affiliates chapter event: Chemistry, logistics, and outreach

249th National Meeting (2015)

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