Slime Safety

• Make sure you have an adult helping you

• Do not eat the slime

• Read all the way through the directions before you begin

Supplies

• Elmer’s Glue

• Food Coloring

• Borax Laundry Detergent (you can find this where laundry detergent is sold – look hard, sometimes it’s hard to find)

• Glass, Metal or Ceramic Bowl

• Spoon

• Eyedropper or straw

Directions

1. Prepare the Elmer’s Glue Polymer:

a. In a bowl, measure ¼ cup Elmer’s Glue

b. Add ¼ cup Water

c. Add two or three drops of food coloring

d. Mix well

2. Prepare the Cross Linking Agent

a. Put about ½ cup of water in a separate bowl, or in a drinking glass.

b. Add 3 tablespoons of Borax Powder.

c. Stir and stir until the cows come home.

If all the powder disappears, then add some more borax – you are trying to make a “saturated” solution – a solution in which no more powder can dissolve..

If there is still some borax powder at the bottom of the glass, proceed – this is supposed to happen – the solution is now saturated.

3. Make the Slime

Slowly add the cross linking agent to the Elmer’s Glue polymer using an eyedropper, or a straw, or some other method to only add a few drops at a time.  (Note!  Make sure you don’t pick up any of the Borax powder at the bottom of the solution – all you want is the borax dissolved in the water.)  As you add the cross linking agent, stir.  When the whole mass is cross-linked – you have slime!

4. Enjoy!

It’s probably best to play with your slime outside, as it will stick to carpets and sofas, and boy! will your parents be mad if that happens!  When you are finished playing with it, just throw the slime in the trash. 

Observations

• Slime has many different properties, can you make it bounce?  Stretch it into a thin sheet?  Fold it up?

• What happens if you take a small cup and try to push the slime in?  Does it make a funny noise?

• As the slime is stretching - do you notice that it gets colder?  Slime stretching is an endothermic reaction.  Just like a rubber band stretching - try this too!

What's happening?!?

The slime that you are making is a polymer. A polymer is a big, long molecule with repeating units.  For example, polyethylene – the polymer that makes up 2 Liter Cola bottles is made up of hundreds to thousands of ethylene molecules all strung together in a line.  (Ethylene is a part of natural gas!).  There are lots of polymers all around you.  Rubber and cornstarch are examples of natural polymers. Most carpet is made of polymers, and there are polymers in many types of clothing – polyester, lycra, spandex are all examples of clothing polymers. Plastic is a general name applied to polymers – so look around you!  Polymers are EVERYWHERE.  Slime is a “cross linked” polymer that is made by taking one polymer - the one that’s in Elmer’s Glue – polyvinyl acetate – and “cross linking” it, forming a bigger polymer.