Ooblek

1. Pour powdered corn starch into bowl.
2. Slowly add water and stir until it is barely liquid.
3. Play & Enjoy.

• Elmer's white glue
• food coloring
• saturated borax solution
• popscicle stick
• plastic wrap
• plastic bag
• disposable cup

1. Add ½ inch of glue to paper cup.
2. Add 1 Tbsp and 1 tsp of water.  Stir.
3. Add 1 to 5 drops of food coloring as desired.  Stir.
4. Add 1 tsp of the Borax solution and mix well.
5. Remove the solid from the cup and place it on a piece of plastic wrap.
6. Pull the solid off the stirring rod and let it sit for a minute or two (it will lose stickiness).

Idea: Place two different colored balls of the stuff on  top of one another.  What happens?  Can they be separated?

Note: Some textbooks have a similar recipe, but 30 mL polyvinyl alcohol instead of every  0.5 g of guar gum.

Gloop

•   x mL of liquid laundry starch
• 2x mL of non-toxic school glue

1. Pour the glue into a plastic container, add the starch, and mix.
2. If the mixture absorbs all the starch, add a little more starch (otherwise its too sticky).
3. When gloop resembles a ropy lump, drain off the excess liquid.  You should be able to work it without having it stick to your fingers.  It should be quite slippery.
4. Blot off excess starch with a paper towel.  Store in a tightly covered plastic container.  Allow it to "rest" three hours to make it easier to handle.

Simplest Slime

• ¼ tsp Guar gum
• water
• small paper cups
• plastic spoons
• food coloring
• borax solution (1 tsp borax & ½ cup H2O)

1. Measure ½ cup water into cup.  Add food coloring if you want.
2. Add ¼ tsp guar gum to water.  Stir until it dissolves.  This will thicken in one or two minutes.
3. Add 1 tsp borax solution and stir.  Mixture should gel in one or two minutes.
4. Play.  Store slime in air-tight container.

"Play-dough"

• flour 250 mL or 1 cup
• water 85 mL or 1/3 cup
• salt 85 mL or 1/3 cup
• vegetable oil 15 mL or 1 Tbsp

1. Mix ingredients.
2. Play.

[Polymers & Slime score sheet][MHS Chem page]