As with many a great story, there is an unassuming character, Bartholomew a page boy, who comes to the rescue. Once children have explored oobleck, they can imagine the chaos it would cause even before reading about it in the book. He sets his royal magicians the task of creating a new type of weather and after lots of hard work they eventually produce oobleck which rains down from the sky. He has grown weary of the wind and the rain (currently I know how he feels) but even the snow and the sunshine. In the story the king grumbles at the sky and it is soon revealed that he is bored of the weather. I couldn’t wait to read the story and make some oobleck back in school. It has some fascinating and unusual properties which drill down into our understanding of the properties of solids and liquids.īut where did the unusual name of oobleck come from? Apparently this ‘cornflour gloop’ had been named oobleck after the green substance that falls from the sky in the Dr.Seuss book ‘Bartholomew and the Oobleck.’ On hearing this, I was immediately excited as ever since loving ‘Green Eggs and Ham,’ as a small child, I have loved Dr Seuss. Known to many as ‘cornflour gloop’ or slime I soon discovered this stuff is amazing. ‘Oobleck’ was something I had not heard of and, as a science teacher, I was curious.

I was at Green Man Festival in Wales enjoying my summer holiday and some local university students were sharing inspiring science with the festival goers. As teachers we often find inspiration in the most unusual of places and this is no exception.

Bartholomew dr seuss