Slime is a gooey, stretchy, sticky substance formed by combining Sodium Tetraborate (also known as Borax) with water. Alternately, you can encourage your child to opt for the borax-free version of slime made using contact lens solution and baking soda along with the other ingredients.
Slime was initially introduced in 1976 as a toy created by leading toy company, Mattel. It was made mostly of guar gum, a powdered substance generated from guar beans. Since then, a wide range of slime varieties has been developed, some of which are multi-coloured and glittery. With eye-catching and engaging videos of people playing with slime, it has become a popular online trend.
Why is the slime experiment so popular?
Making slime has gained popularity due to the various ways in which it can be made as well as for its malleable texture enjoyed by both kids and adults. Encouraging your kids to make slime improves their hand-eye co-ordination and motor skills. Besides, it allows them to focus on doing one thing at a time while they learn different science concepts.
The experiment
Introduce your kids to the fascinating world of slime with a simple home experiment.
What you’ll need
How-to
Get these on a table, call your child, and start the experiment. Here’s a step-by-step guide.
How do baking soda and contact lens solution create Slime?
Now, that you have your child’s attention, explain what has exactly happened. The mechanism of each type of slime is determined by its chemical composition, but the basic explanation is that chemicals are combined to form polymers. The polymers operate as net, allowing molecules to slide past one another. When enough polymer molecules are joined together in an appropriate way, the glue solution transforms from a liquid to a rubbery substance known as slime.
Alternately, to make slime, your kid will need a chemical called a crosslinker to connect all of the glue molecules. When your kid uses the contact lens solution, the boric acid in the solution reacts with the baking soda in the solution to form borate, which is the same crosslinking solution found in Borax. This is the concept behind making slime.