by William Frentz

Created on: May 23, 2008

Children are curious. That is a fact of life that children tend to want to know more about the world around them. Children are totally fascinated by all the things they see. If you have ever spent time with children, you notice how children point out everything they see. It is essential for a parent or a teacher to encourage their children or students to learn more about their surroundings. This encouragement will help children take their education seriously and hopefully they will look forward to going to school!

Kids also love to do hands-on activities such as playing with toy cars and dolls. This affinity for objects can easily be translated to learning about chemistry by the way of chemistry projects. Generally, little kids will not really care for the details of the chemical reactions behind their "experiments", but rather SEEING with their own eyes. Kids are easily amused by things that change right before them. No wonder that "Transformers" is such a success.

There are many different simple chemistry projects that kids can do with some adult supervision. One of these projects is the production of slime. "Slime" is pretty much watered down glue with some powder. It can be made in ten minutes.

This project utilizes math skills required to measure the amount of each ingredient needed to produce the "slime". This is a great teaching tool for a child. It is especially good for a rainy day. Encourage the kids to do the work on their own. Children really like knowing that they were the ones who made this product instead of having someone else make it for them. It makes them feel intelligent and independent.

Here are the ingredients required to make slime.

1/2 cup of glue
1/2 cup of water
add any food coloring desired

The above ingredients are to be put in their own bowl. Another bowl is used for the following ingredients.

1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of borax powder

Now you need to place the glue mixture into the bowl containing the borax powder. Squeeze the sticky material in your hands over the bowl of water. The longer you do this, the more dry and less sticky the slime will be. Discard the water in the bowl when you are finished.

Now your children can play with the slime! Kids love slime and will play with it for hours. Also, don't forget to refrigerate the slime when not in use because bacteria will thrive on warm slime. This bacteria can be bad for your kids. Do not let small children play with slime without adult supervision because it is not exactly healthy to eat.

Learn more about this author, William Frentz.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.