I have been reading a lot about these chemical reactions and polymers lately.  Over at Martinzoo they have been working on it, so we decided to give it a go today.  We made a bouncy ball which was a big hit with my people.  Later, with the girl scouts we made air fresheners and ooblix too.  We attempted to make slime, but every time I do it something seems to go terribly wrong.  But, we have perfected our recipe for the bouncy ball now...have a look!

For the recipe and the science behind it all check out this site:  Home Training Tools

BUT...we found this recipe to work the best:

 

1 Tablespoon of blue gel glue

1/2 teaspoon of Borax dissolved in

2 Tablespoons of very hot tap water

 

Add 1/2 teaspoon of Borax solution to the glue and let stand for a magical 15 seconds.  Stir.  When it pulls off the sides take it out and roll it until you have a nice solid bouncy ball.  And Voila!  Impress your friends and children! 

Charlie Brown had a little issue.  It worked out in the end.

The finished product—and it really did bounce!  Now, I did follow the instructions at HTT, and it did make a nice ball, but the ball hit the floor with a lovely ‘THUD’.  So, Martinzoo cued me into the gel glue working better, and it did! 

Then, the girl scouts came over to work on the ‘Science Slueths’ badge.  We made the bouncy balls, and ooblix, and the air fresheners.  The ooblix was a big hit, because we could not determine if it was a liquid or a solid.  They each made air fresheners using the recipe here at

Home Training Tools.  This was simple and fun for them to do.  I also saw this on Martinzoo too.  I just got one of those scented oil refills from the store and used it in the air freshener.  And, for those of you who don’t know ooblix is merely cornstarch and water...and a little food coloring if you are real adventurous!  However, as a side note, adding food color to our balls made them seem more sticky.

Here the girls measure out the gel for the air fresheners.

Ooblix...or is it eeewwwwblix??

Spider-webby!