SUMMER SCIENCE PROJECT #5
Remember that stretchy pink stuff in a little red egg? It could pick up newspaper comics, bounce like a rubber ball, and somehow never got old. This week’s science project brings that retro fun back — with a modern glow-inthe- dark twist.
With just a couple household ingredients, kids can mix up their own batch of homemade Silly Putty that’s part slime, part bounce toy, and 100% fun. Add a splash of glow-in-the-dark paint or powder, and it becomes nighttime science magic.
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons white school glue 2 tablespoons liquid starch (like Sta-Flo, laundry aisle) Optional: a few drops of glow-in-the-dark paint or glow powder Optional: food coloring Mixing bowl and spoon Instructions: Pour glue into your mixing bowl.
Add glow paint or coloring and stir until smooth.
Slowly add liquid starch and stir — it will thicken quickly.
Once it clumps together, knead with your hands until it’s stretchy and no longer sticky.
Charge it under a light, then turn off the lights and let it glow!
SCIENCE WORD OF THE WEEK: POLYMER A polymer is a chain of molecules that acts like both a solid and a liquid. That’s why Silly Putty can stretch slowly or snap suddenly. Glue has long polymer chains, and when you add starch, they link up and form a soft solid.
WHAT TO TRY:
Roll it into a ball and see how high it bounces Flatten it on a piece of newsprint or comic strip and peel it off slowly Shape it into animals, letters, or weird alien blobs Keep it sealed in a plastic bag to reuse all summer
DID YOU KNOW?
Silly Putty was invented by accident during World War II when researchers were trying to create a substitute for rubber. It wasn’t very useful for the war — but it bounced straight into toy history.
