Concoctions for Play: Slime

Slime

Recipe 1

The recipe for this slime is easy enough.

Equal amounts of Elmer's clear glue and Liquid Laundry Starch. 

Add food coloring as desired.

We poured the bottle of glue into a plastic cup to measure it. We marked a line on the cup at top most point of the glue. Then we added that same amount of liquid starch.

Mix together with your hands.

It gets more solidified as you mix it.

Recipe 2, with glitter variation

Or, you can use this recipe.

1 teaspoon Borax powder

1 1/2 cups. water, divided

4 oz. (or 1/2 cup) Elmer's clear glue

food coloring

glitter

Fill a small bowl with 1 cup of water and add 1 teaspoon of Borax powder. Mix until the Borax is dissolved and set aside. Pour glue into a medium mixing bowl and add 1/2 cup of water. Add four-eight drops of food coloring to the glue mixture. Stir it up a bit. We added some glitter just for fun, but this is not necessary. Now add the Borax mixture to the glue mixture and watch it begin to solidify. Stick your hands in and and start mixing it all up. Pour out the excess water and knead the mixture until it becomes more firm and dry. When you're done playing with it, store in a Ziplock bag or other air tight container. We used 2 oz. Multi-purpose mini cups I bought at Wal-mart.

About the safety of Borax, refer to Getting to the Bottom of Borax: Is it Safe or Not? at Crunchy Betty. 

Cross-linking Polymers

The science behind all of these type concoctions is that they are polymers. Polymers have long chains of molecules that can slide past each other until some of the molecules come in contact with molecules that stick together at a few places along the strand. Starches are responsible for hooking the glue’s molecules together to form the putty-like material. You will see variations on this recipe, which make the concoction slightly different, but they all work on this same scientific principle.

I reminded them of what they had learned about polymers (long chains of molecules hooked together), and illustrated what had just happened in the experiment by using 3 chains of paper clips laying side by side.

I showed them that the paper clip strands slide by each other easily, and this is how the glue alone acts. I then hooked two from one chain to two from another chain, making cross-links.

I showed them how the chains cannot easily slide back in forth now, illustrating the changes that occur when the laundry starch is added to the glue.

originally posted: Jun 3, 2013

Elementary Chemistry (grades 1-4}

Week 1: Observing Matter

1. Provide the student with a mystery object. Have your student develop observation skills by having him make at least 10 statements about the object's physical attributes. Observations can be quantitative, by using measurement tools, or qualitative, obtained through the senses.
2. Teach the student how to draw and label a model. Provide a variety of fruits and vegetables (apple, squash, cucumber, potato, banana, star fruit, strawberry, kiwi, and the like.) Have him draw as many detailed cross-sections of them as he desires to. Refrigerate the fruits for the next lesson.
3. Using the fruits and vegetables from yesterday, ask the student to predict what will happen to each one if heat is added. Cook half of a couple of the fruits or vegetables (the ones he sketched before), separately, and observe the physical properties. Discuss the changes. Freeze the other half and observe the physical changes. Discuss the fact that, even though they changed, they are still the same item: for example, even though it is cooked, the apple is still an apple.
4. Teach the importance of using specific descriptive language for physical attributes. Words such as small and pretty do not tell much about the object. Have your student write a description of a familiar object or another of the fruits and vegetables using descriptive language. Encourage him to use senses other than sight.

Week 2: Matter

1. Matter can be in the form of a solid, liquid or gas. Review this and help your student write in his science journal a working definition for each state of matter.
2. Have the student name in his science journal the ways that each state of matter can be measured. (Can a solid be measured with a ruler? Can a gas be measured with a ruler?...)
3. Explore a substance that could be considered a solid or a liquid. Have your student write about it in his science journal. Which state does he think it is most like and why?

Weeks 3 and 4: Density

1. Density is the amount of matter in a given space. Compare the density of water an maple syrup. Allow the student to pour a half-cup of each into two identical glass or clear plastic containers and place the containers on a balance scale. Discuss with the student that more particles of matter are packed into the denser liquid, making it heavier. 
2. Pour the syrup into the water. Have your student observe, describe and explain the interaction in his science journal.
3. Solids are usually more dense than liquids and liquids are usually more dense than gases. Have your student draw in his science journal pictures to illustrate how the particles of matter in each are spread apart or tightly packed together. 
4. Is ice more or less dense than liquid water?
5. Different liquids have different densities. Work together to pour a variety of liquids in a clear glass cylinder, then float objects in the various layers. Have the student record with sketches and written explanation where each object settles in the cylinder.
6. Add kosher salt to tap water to make the water more dense. Have the student find objects that float in the salt water that do not float in the tap water. Try an egg. Relate this to floating in the ocean compared to a pool or lake.
7. Can your student think of a magic trick using the two densities of water to amaze his friends?

Weeks 5 and 6: Separating Mixtures

1. Sometimes a scientist needs to determine the elements of a substance. In order to identify the parts that make up the whole, the scientist needs to be able to separate a mixture and identify matter by the measurable and observable attributes, states of matter and density. Teach the student different methods for separating mixtures.
2. Provide the student with a substance that is difficult to separate, such as rice and flour. Challenge your student to find different ways to separate the mixture.
3. Provide the student with a mixture of sugar and sand. Challenge him to find different ways to separate the mixture (such as dissolving or heating.)
4. Read about Robert Boyle. He was a founder of modern chemistry. He worked with gasses and explored the makeup of basic elements. Have your student write in his science journal what he has learned about Robert Boyle, including an explanation telling why his work is important.

Week 7: Testing

1. Assess the student's use of observational skills to determine the identity of some mysterious white powders.

Week 8
Disappearing Eggshell


Week 9
Starch Testing

Week 10
Dry Ice Investigations


Week 11
Parts of the Atom


Week 12
Building Molecules


Weeks 13 and 14
Chemical Reactions


Weeks 15-20
Salt Lapbook
Water turns into a solid at 32 degrees F. This is called the freezing point. Does all water freeze at 32 degrees F? Fill two small paper cups with water. Mix 4 teaspoons of salt in one of the cups. Mark it salt. Put both cups in the freezer. Check on them every hour for four hours. When the temperature of water gets very cold, the particles of water hook together to make ice crystals. Salt gets in the way of this process and an ever lower temperature is needed before ice crystals will form.


Weeks 21 and 22
Acids vs Bases



Week 23
Different Size Molecules




Weeks 24 and 25
Polymers, Slime


Week 26
Copper Plating


Week 27
Making Butter

Erupting Lava Bottle

Week 28: Erupting Lava Bottle

Week 29: Density
Buoyancy is how capable an object is of floating. We have experimented with varying amounts of water in a plastic bottle floating in a large bowl of water and how its buoyancy is affected.

Preschool Chemistry (grades Pre-K-Kindergarten)

Weeks 1-11: Water: Raindrops and Oil Drops

1. Teach the skill of observation. Observation takes time and uses different senses. Use measurement tools, if possible. Have your student give you specific observations using descriptive language for you to write in his science journal. Have your student observe a drop of water on wax paper and make observations about it.
2. Put another drop of water and drops of other liquids on the wax paper. Observe and compare. Other liquids may include vinegar, oil, syrup, milk and juice. Bump the wax paper slightly so each liquid moves. Have your student draw each drop in his journal and label. Have him narrate to you other observations about the drops.
3. Add food coloring to the water. Put a drop on the waxed paper about 1 cm in diameter. Put a drop of oil near the water. Have your student make a hypothesis about what will happen when the oil drop and water drop mix. Then move the paper so that the drops come together and have your student observe what happens. Have him draw a picture and help him label it.
4. Explore the property of cohesion. Tell the student that water sticks together. He will probably remember that water maintained its shape while the other liquids did not. Wet two plastic bags and hold them together. Give them to the student to pull apart. Ask him to describe what happened and record this in his science journal.
5. Give the student a straw and a sheet of wax paper. Place a small amount of cornstarch in the center of the waxed paper. Have him gently blow at the cornstarch. Have him describe what happened and record this in his science journal. Now place a 1 cm drop of water on a clean piece of waxed paper. Have him blow at the water. Have him describe what happened and record this in his science journal. Have him make a sketch of it in his science journal.
6. Put a drop of water on waxed paper. Have the student experiment with a toothpick and draw a picture of what happened. Have him narrate to you a description of what happened for you to record next to his picture. If the water drop does break into smaller water drops, have him explore how to bring them back together.
7. Explore the property of surface tension. On a table, place a penny on a paper towel. Have him guess how many drops of water will fit on the surface of a penny. Using an eyedropper, have the student add and count the drops of water until the water spills over onto the paper towel. Have the student repeat the experiment as many times as he would like, each time recording the results in his science journal. Dry the penny between tries. Ask him to observe the water on the penny and propose why he thinks the water acted like it did.
8. Fill a glass to the brim with water and place it on a paper towel on a table. Ask him to predict how many paperclips he will be able to place in the glass before the water overflows. You can vary the experiment by using pennies instead of paper clips or by using other liquids. Have him narrate his findings in his science journal.
9. A paper clip normally sinks in water. However, if the student is careful, he may be able to make a small paper clip rest on the surface of the water. Ask him to propose a solution as to why this can happen. The strong surface tension is supporting the paper clip.
10. Fill a shallow pan with more than one inch of water. Ask student to predict what will happen when you sprinkle some talcum powder or cinnamon over the surface. Have him observe what happens. Dip a toothpick in some detergent and then into the center of the dish. Ask him to describe what happened and propose and explanation and record this in his science journal.
11. Try the penny exploration (#7) with soapy water.
12. Mix a 1/2 cup of dishwashing detergent and 1 quart of water in a dishpan. Make a bubble frame or use one that you already have. Allow the student to explore and have fun playing.
13. Pour a cup of milk in a bowl. Drop one drop of red food coloring on one side of the bowl. Have the student predict what will happen when you drop yellow food coloring into the bowl. Have him observe, propose an explanation and record this in his science journal.

Weeks 12-13: Sink and Float

1. Gather many common objects for exploration. Provide a dishpan with water. Have the student guess whether the objects will sink or float and have him try each one. Record the findings in his science journal.
2. Tightly crumple a 5 inch by 5 inch piece of foil and drop it into the water. It should sink. Then, place a flat piece of foil on the surface of the water and watch it float. Have your student find out at what point the foil sinks. Fold the foil once and check whether it floats, fold it twice and check and so on. Each time record the results in his science journal.
3. Have the student roll out a small piece of clay and shape it into a boat. Ask him to predict whether it will float or sink in the water and then test it. Have him crumple the boat into a ball and predict what will happen when it is put in the water. Have him test it and record all the results in his science journal.
4. Fill a glass with a clear carbonated beverage. Drop 4-5 raisins in the liquid. Observe the raisins as they float and sink with the bubbles. Have your student draw what he saw in his science journal.

Weeks 14-17: Observing Solids, Liquids and Gases

1. Have the student observe the attributes of solids by gathering objects from around the house. What do they all have in common?
2. Have the student observe the attributes of liquids by gathering some from around the house. What do they all have in common? Discuss the difference between Liquids and Solids
3. Have the student observe the attributes of gases. Carbon dioxide is a gas that is produced by exhaling. Capture your breath in a balloon or plastic bag. Carbon dioxide is also a gas that is produced when vinegar and baking soda are mixed. Put vinegar in an empty soda bottle. Put 1 Tab. baking soda in a balloon. Secure the opening of the balloon around the mouth of the soda bottle and empty the baking soda into the vinegar. Capture the gas in the balloon. 
4. Demonstrate that gases take up space. Put water in a large glass bowl or aquarium. Stuff one paper towel in the bottom of a glass. Ask your student to predict what will happen to the paper towel when you put the glass in the water. Turn the glass upside down, making sure the paper towel does not fall out. Bring the glass straight down into the water. The towel should not get wet. Lead the student to propose that there is air in the glass and that the air takes up space. The water cannot fill the same space as the air. 

Weeks 18-20: Water as a Gas

1. Put cold water in a saucepan and put it on the stove. Ask him to draw a picture of the pan on the stove and describe what will happen when the water is heated. Observe the water and have the student describe what happens as the water heats. After the water has boiled for about 10 minutes, ask him to draw a second picture of the pan and label the changes. Ask him to explain where the water is now and record this in his journal.
2. Gather three wide-mouth jars and put one cup of water in each jar. Place one by a sunny window, one near a heat source and the third in a cool, dark place. Have the student draw each jar and describe each location. Have him place a ruler along the side of jar and note the water level in centimeters from the table top. Observe and measure the water level for several days.
3. Pour a half-cup water on a plate and set it in a sunny window. Pour a half-cup water in a plastic bag, seal it and set it in a sunny window. After 3-4 days, pour the water from the plate into a half-cup measuring cup and observe the water level. Pour the water from the plastic bag into a half-cup measuring cup and observe. Ask the student to make a conclusion and record this in his science journal.

Weeks 21-23: Water as a Solid 

1. Ask your student if he has ever seen water in a solid form. Have him propose how to change liquid water into a solid. Follow his plan and check the progress periodically as it changes into ice. Record his observations and pictures in his science journal.
2. What is it? An activity about making inferences.
3. Secret Formulas: Paste

Weeks 24-26: Secret Formulas

1. Secret Formulas: Cola Taste Test
2. Secret Formulas: How Sweet IS Coke?
3. Secret Formulas: To Each His Own Cola

Weeks 27-30: More Secret Formulas

1. Secret Formulas: Ice Cream
2. Secret Formulas: Toothpaste
3. Secret Formulas: Testing Clean Abilities
4. Secret Formulas: Making Toothpaste

Weeks 31-32: Dissolving and Mixing

1. Swirling Colors: Exercises in Dissolving
2. To Mix or Not to Mix

Weeks 33-35: Dissolving and Absorbing

1. Involving Dissolving
2. Gelatin Disks
3. Water Beads

Week 36: Atoms

1. Atom Models

How to Make Red Cabbage pH Indicator (without stinking up the kitchen!)

Red cabbage makes a great pH indicator, but making it by boiling it on the stove for the juice can make the house smell like, well, cabbage, which for most, is an unpleasant smell.

source

There is an easier way, and, surprisingly, it produces more juice than the boiling method.

1. Take about 1/3-1/2 of a small red cabbage and slice it into large shreds.
2. Put the cabbage shreds into a blender.
3. Add about 2 cups of boiling water.
4. Turn on your blender and blend until you have a mush (yes, mush is a scientific term on this blog.)
5. Put a strainer over a bowl. Pour the mush into the strainer, straining out the juice.
6. Now you can  use this red cabbage juice as an indicator. Acids will turn the pigments in the indicator to a reddish color; bases will turn the pigments bluish or yellow-green.
   
   

How to Make Litmus Paper with Red Cabbage Juice

1. Cut strips from plain white paper towels about an inch wide and a couple inches long.
2. Take the paper towel strips and soak them in the cabbage juice for about a minute. Remove them and let them dry on something that won’t stain.
3. Let the paper strips dry and as soon as they are dry your litmus paper is ready to use.

Chemistry, Lesson 5: Multitude of Mixtures

May, 2010

Mixtures are two or more substances that have been combined.

Heterogeneous Mixtures

When we can actually see the different substances, we call the mixture heterogeneous.

Making cookies is a good way to demonstrate a heterogeneous mixture. They can see the different things that go into the cookie dough.

Once mixed up, they can still see the individual components that make up the cookie dough. It is a heterogeneous mixture.

Suspensions

Erupting Lava Bottle, 2012

A lot of heterogeneous mixtures are suspensions. A suspension is a mixture where larger particles mixed into smaller particles with the larger particles suspended throughout the mixture. Making an Erupting Lava Bottle is a fun way to demonstrate suspensions.

Colloid Suspensions

Dancing Raisins demonstration, 2009

Adding some raisins to some carbonated water is another way. It is a colloid suspension. A colloid suspension contains particles of solid, liquid, or bubbles of gas suspended within a solid, liquid or gas. At first the raisins sink to the bottom of the glass. However the carbon dioxide is suspended in the liquid and attaches to the raisins. The carbon dioxide is a gas and gases have a tendency to expand and escape their containers, so as the gas bubbles rise, they take the raisins with them.

Making Butter, 2012

You can also separate the fat globules from a homogeneous milk mixture by making your own butter. Fill a jar half-full of cream and put the lid on tightly. Put a marble in the jar. Shake the jar for a long time. The fat globules will begin to find other fat globules until they form a large ball of them, otherwise known as butter.

Foam is another kind of colloid. It is made by mixing a gas in a liquid. Whipped cream is a foam of air and cream.

The Science of Making Salad Dressing, 2008

Salad dressing is another kind of colloid called an emulsion. Droplets of liquids mixed with another liquid is called an emulsion.

Homogeneous Mixtures

Homogeneous mixtures are so well mixed that you can't easily see the individual parts.

The Effect of Temperature on the Solubility of Solid Solutes, 2010

Solutions

A solution is made up of one substance that is dissolved into another substance. In the case of a saltwater solution, the solute is the salt, or the substance being dissolved. The water is the solvent since it is the something that is doing the dissolving. 

Concentration, 2011

A concentration has a large amount of solute in the solvent. You can demonstrate the effect of concentration by changing the amount of concentration of vinegar in a glass and then adding a Tums tablet to each glass. Look at the varying rates of dissolving.

Water

Water is considered the closest thing to a universal solvent that is known to us. Because of it's chemical properties, many other substances are able to dissolve in water.

Water's Polarity, 2010

It is a universal solvent because the water molecules have two positive charges on each end and a negative charge in the center. 

Involving Dissolving, 2008

When a solute is added to water, the water molecules surround parts of the solute. If the solute has a positively charged part the negative side of the water molecule is attracted to and attaches to the solute molecule. If the solute has a negatively charged part, the positive side of the water molecule is attracted to and attaches to the solute molecule. This is called a polar molecule or a polar bond. A nonpolar molecule, such as oil won't dissolve in water.

Rainbow Milk: The Bonds of Soap

Soap has a nonpolar end and a polar end as well. The nonpolar end is hydrophilic, or water-loving and the polar end is hydrophobic, or water-fearing or fat-loving. You can see the results of this with a bowl of milk, dishwashing liquid and some food coloring.



Add a few drops of food coloring to the bowl of milk. This will help you to see the action the molecules are taking. Now drop some drops of dishwashing liquid in the milk. 

The molecules of fat move in every direction as the dishwashing liquid molecules swirl about to join the fat molecules. As the soap breaks down the fats in the milk, it moves in currents, which move and mix the colors.

Alloys and Malleability

Alloys are metals that have been dissolved into other metals to form a metal solution. Most jewelry is made of alloys. Most gold jewelry, for example, is an alloy made up of mainly gold mixed with copper or nickle. This is done to make the gold much harder.

You see, gold is very malleable, or easy to bend. If you made jewelry out of pure gold, it would be as malleable as aluminum foil. To demonstrate this, you can invite your students to sculpt out of aluminum foil.

Separating a Mixture, 2010

Separating Mixtures

There are many ways to separate a mixture:

• Evaporation
• Filtration
• Sifting
• Magnetism
• Chromatography

A fun way to demonstrate this is to give your students a mixture and see if they can separate the components using one or more of these methods.

• Chemistry: Making Things Un-Mix: Chromotography, 2010

Chomatography is another way of separating mixtures. The markers become the test substances, and are used to draw lines onto strips of paper coffee filter, which are the medium. The strips of paper are then taped to sticks, so that they can be suspended in water, which is the solvent. The solvent passes through the test substance, and as it does so some of the test substance is attracted to the solvent and follows it up the medium. Different types of molecules are transported different distances, causing them to separate.

sources and resources:

• Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics, Jeannie Fulbright
• Exploring Creation with General Science, Jay Wile
• Great Explorations in Math and Science, Involving Dissolving
• Exploring Creation with Physical Science, Jay Wile
• Exploring Creation with Chemistry, Jay Wile

related posts:

• Erupting Lava Bottle
• Dancing Raisins
• The Effect of Temperature on Solubility
• Concentration
• Water's Polarity
• Involving Dissolving
• Swirling Colors
• What does Soap do to Water?
• Making Butter
• Separating a Mixture
• Chemistry: Making Things Un-Mix: Chromotography