How to Make Goo With Borax & Glue

Making goo, or slime, as it's more commonly referred to, is a popular science project. It effectively demonstrates the properties of polymers on a small scale, with little expense. In this experiment, the created polymer displays characteristics of a solid and a liquid. This project is simple enough for small children to do with adult supervision but because of the "gross" factor, even older children love to participate. Some key words to define while doing this project are: viscosity, polymer, solid, liquid and flow.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring cups
• Water
• Borax
• White glue
• Food coloring (optional)
• Quart size zip-and-seal bags

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Instructions

1. • 1

     Fill a measuring cup with 1 cup of water. Add 1 tbsp. borax and stir until combined. Borax can be found in your grocery store cleaning-products aisle; it is a powder and comes in a box.

   • 2

     Fill a separate measuring cup with ½ cup water and ½ cup white craft glue. Mix until thoroughly combined. If colored slime is desired, add a few drops of food coloring to this glue mixture.

   • 3

     Pour glue solution and borax solution into a quart-size zip-and-seal bag. Seal the bag and knead until you have achieved a slime-like consistency. This recipe will yield approximately 2 cups of slime.

   • 4

     Play with your creation or use it as a demonstration for a science lesson on polymers.

   • 5

     Store the slime in a sealed plastic bag. It can keep almost indefinitely, but you will most likely want to discard it after several uses because it will accumulate contaminants such as hair and debris.