Science - Making and Testing the Properties of Slime

Last Thursday, our wonderful KS3 pupils were very busy making and testing the properties of slime. Properties of solids, liquids and gases and the differences between them are clearly defined and taught. However, some materials such as slime require a closer look. Slime is a non-Newtonian fluid, a substance that is neither a solid nor liquid. It can be picked up like a solid but will ooze like a liquid, it can take the shape of whatever container it’s placed in or be bouncy like a ball.

To make slime, our KS3 chemists added baking soda to PVA glue followed by a few eye drops. The borax in eye drops connects the long polymer chains in glue at random locations. It is this cross-linking that gives slime its characteristic feel. This activity was a great way to introduce students to polymers and non-Newtonian fluids. They will be looking at polymers in more detail in GCSE Chemistry. 

A massive thank you to Pratik for his help!