Everyone likes to make slime! Slime is so much fun! It’s sticky, gooey, oozy, what’s not to like? Did you know that when you make slime you are actually performing a science experiment? It’s true, you will get different textures of slime depending on how you make it.
In this slime science experiment you are going to make rubbery slime. How? With Borax and glue. Keep reading to find out how you make this rubbery slime science experiment for kids.
This is a fun and easy science experiment for 1st or 2nd grade.
Glue and Borax Science Experiment for 1st and 2nd grade
The kids ages 5-9 had such a good time making it, I decided to try it at home with my little one. Sure enough she loved it too. Since Winter is coming and my daughter is still an Elsa fan we decided to go with a frozen theme foam slime.
Instead of using white Elmer’s school glue we used Elmer’s blue glitter glue. We also used a blue gel shaving cream instead of white shaving cream and we added a lot of blue glitter. Which ever school glue or shaving cream you use the recipe will come out the same.
It’s a fun experiment to try with a class, day care or something easy to do with your child or when you have a play date. This is also a great young student science experiment to do for school. Follow the step-by-step directions below to fine our what happens when you mix borax and glue to make rubbery slime.
Materials:
Elmer’s glitter glue or regular glue
gel shaving cream (you can also use foam shaving cream)
Borax (3 spoonful’s)
t spoon of water, bowl (I would use a Styrofoam bowl or a bowl you can throw away)
optional glitter
Step 1:
Pour 1/4 of the bottle of Elmer’s glue into your bowl.
Step 2:
Spray a little of the gel shaving cream into the bowl. Mix together with the glue, the substance should be a little fluffy. If it’s not add more shaving cream. See picture below.
Step 3:
Add a t spoon of water and mix together.
Step 4:
If you would like to have some sparkle in your foam slime, add some glitter or you can add a lot like we did.
Step 5:
Mix 3 cereal spoonful’s of Borax with a cup of water. Slowly add the some of the Borax and water mixture into your glue and shaving cream mixture. You will see that a change is taking place. The more Borax solution you add the less slimy it will get.
What Happened?
You may have noticed that the more borax you added caused a more rubbery feel.
Why?
Glue has these long flexible molecules called polymers. In liquid form these polymers slide past each other quickly. When borax is mixed with water the solution forms borate ion. The borate ions help link the polymer molecules to each other. When the borax solution is added to the glue solution the polymers cannot move quickly causing them to become rubbery becoming the slime.
