SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS FOR KIDS

If you’ve got kids, chances are you’ve heard of slime. It’s everywhere! At home, at school, at every kid’s party you’ve gone to – and on the floor. In fact, you’ve probably got some stuck to your shoe right now.

Here’s a way to make some slime of your own. Using just glue, water and Borax, your little slime fanatics can whip up a batch of the sticky, gooey, slimy substance for a fun afternoon project. Remember it’s not for eating, though, so make sure the kids keep it out of their mouths – and off that floor.

GATHER THIS:

• Glue
• Water
• Borax
• Food Coloring

THEN DO THIS:

Show your child the materials; Borax, white glue and water. Reinforce that you will be doing this step by step; together, and that the materials should not be eaten!

There are two components to slime. There is a borax and water solution and a glue, water, and food coloring solution. Prepare them separately.

1. Bowl: Pour 1/4 cup glue, 1/4 cup of water and 4 drops of food coloring into a large mixing bowl. Mix together with a spoon.
2. Cup: Mix 1/2 teaspoon borax into 1/2 cup of water and stir until borax dissolves.
3. Slowly pour the borax solution from the cup into the large mixing bowl with the glue and stir slowly.
4. Continue stirring until a slimy mixture forms.
5. Once the slime has formed, knead the mixture until it becomes less sticky.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

What’s going on? The borax is acting as the cross-linking agent or “connector” for the glue (polyvinyl acetate) molecules. Once the glue molecules join together to form even larger molecules called polymers, you get a thickened gel very similar to slime.