By John McDevitt

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It was a day of fun and learning about the science of stuff at a fair on Drexel University’s Campus.

At the Materials Science and Engineering Day, 11-year-old Romero and his two friends got into things literally; they took off their shoes and ran across a container with a mixture of cornstarch and water, a demonstration on the surprising behavior of soft matter.

“We are looking at cornstarch mixed with water, and it acts like a solid if you hit it hard. If you go so slow, it acts like a liquid, and it’s called a non-Newtonian fluid.”

(Credit: John McDevitt, KYW Newsradio)

And if you stop, you could get stuck and fall over, like 11-year-old Quincy found out.

“I just stopped moving,” he said.

Other popular activities showed what sports equipment is made of, as well as the making and sampling of liquid nitrogen ice cream.

Professors, students and staff from both the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University put on the fair.