Slime Science Day

This week, we veered from our Real Science text and turned the lesson on polymers into an all out slime lab, with a reading of "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" for the 6 and under crowd, as well as stations to make oobleck, "boogers", and gloop, for the rest. (You can get all the recipes and mixing procedures here.)

For each of the globs, the kids conducted a Slime Test:

• Description -- How does your slime look like, feel, smell?
• Slime Rating -- Rate it from 1 = not very slimy to 5 = very slimy
• Slow Poke Test -- Roll the slime into a ball and slowly poke your finger into the slime.  What happens?  Does your finger go into the goop?
• Quick Poke Test -- Roll the slime into a ball and quickly poke the slime with your finger.  What happens?  Does your finger go into the goop?
• Slow Pull Test -- Roll the slime into a ball and slowly pull on the ends with your fingers.  What happens? 
• Quick Pull Test -- Roll the slime into a ball and slowly pull on the ends with your fingers.  What happens? 
• Blob Test --  Grab a timer. Roll your slime into a ball and sit it on your plate or the table.  How long does it take for it to flatten out?
• Hang Test -- Grab a timer and a ruler. Roll your slime into a ball and hold it at a height of 30 cm above the table.  Time how long it takes for the goop to reach the table. 
• Bounce Test -- Roll your slime into a ball and drop from a height of 30 cm above the table.  What happens? 

Unsurprisingly, this one takes the cake as the messiest/most fun/highest rated science day by far. Slime Science Day should be mandatory curriculum every year, I think. I'm sure all the kids would agree to that!