What you need:
- Zip-lock bag
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon PVA glue
- Food colouring (optional)
- 1 tablespoon borax solution (this can be tricky to find in the
UK. Ask an adult to look online or in Boots stores). If your
borax is in powdered form, dissolve 1 tablespoon of borax in half a
cup of water.
How to:
- Put the glue and water in the plastic bag.
- If you'd like to make coloured slime, add a few drops of food
colouring. I use green food colouring for really snotty slime.
- Seal the bag and squeeze it gently to mix.
- Open the bag and add the borax. Re-seal the bag and squeeze
gently to mix. Does the slime mixture feel different?
Keep your slime in a sealed plastic bag when you're not using
it, otherwise it will dry out quickly.
Science Off
Center show you how to make slime in the video below. They use
glow-in-the-dark paint to make spooky slime.
What's happening?
Slime is a special kind of polymer. Polymers
are long chains of the same molecule. The slime you made is special
because it has the properties of both a solid and
a liquid. It is a non-Newtonian fluid.
When you add the borax, it links some of the polymers in the
glue together, so they can't slide over each other as easily. This
makes the mixture become gloopy and slimy.
Oobleck is another special kind of polymer. Find out how to make
it at Gloopy
Oobleck.
What are the Top 5 slimiest animals? Find out at Ew, slime!