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Topic: Slime Lab

Summary: Students will design their own experiment making slime. They are given a
certain amount of materials to make the slime but no procedures or concentrations of
materials. This lab works great for discovery.

Goals & Objectives: Students will be able to design their own experiment to make
slime. Students will be able to use the scientific method to test their hypothesis. Students
will be able to create a pie chart of their results.

NGSS Standards: None

Time Length: 100 minutes

Materials:
• Meter sticks, 1 per group
• Stirring rods, 1 per group (wooden sticks work best but fingers work too)
• 11 beakers, 10 medium size, and one 500mL.
• Paper or plastic cups, 1 per group
• Graduated Cylinders, 1 per group and one per beaker
• Glue (Elmers works good--large container can be bought from home depot)
• Water
• Food coloring
• Borax detergent

Lab Setup:
First make the borax solution. Mix 1 gram of borax in 500 mL of water. Then pour the
solution into 5 beakers of 200 mL for easy access by the students. Second, pour the glue
from the large container into cups for each lab group. 100 mL is plenty. Third, pour water
into 5 beakers of 200 mL. Place the food-coloring bottle near the borax solution.

Place two cups at each lab station: one cup with glue and one empty cup. Place one large
graduated cylinder at each station. Place the borax solution and the water on a desk in an
easily accessible, high-traffic area of the room. Try to keep all solution near the sink. This
helps with clean up. Place a graduated cylinder next to each beaker.

Procedures:
1. Group students as lab partners. Tell students to do all measuring on top of the tables.
Students may not carry the graduated cylinders or beakers around the room. Students
perform all work on top of tables or counters. If students get materials on the floor, they
must clean it up immediately.

2. Students conduct the lab by measuring the glue, borax solution and water solutions
with graduated cylinders. Students need to fill in their handout with their measurements.

© NGSS Life Science 2015

Each drop of food coloring counts as a milliliter. Students then use the stirring rod to stir
their mixture. Discourage students from using their hands for stirring.

3. Students probably will not have a good mixture or stretchable slime. They can get
more materials to add to their current mixture, but they may not start over. They fill in
their new additions of mL in Attempt 2 and Attempt 3.

4. 30 minutes before the end of the period, stop allowing the addition of materials. This is
when students will use the stir rod to stretch their slime vertically, using a meter stick to
measure the distance. Students record the length into the first row of the data table. Wait
for all students to finish measuring.

5. Students then share their team name and lengths, and display their slime. Students then
infer if the slime is solid, liquid or somewhere in-between and infer the viscosity of the
slime. High viscosity pours very slowly.

6. The team with the longest stretching slime shares their mL of materials used to make
the slime. Students then write in their conclusion. Clean up the lab. The “go further” can
be finished in class or as homework. Adding dry borax will make the slime solid and may
possibly bounce.

Clean Up:
All students must clean up their tables and the counters. Students clean the graduated
cylinders by filling them up with water then going to the trash barrel with soap and test
tube brush. Students have to throw away their cups of slime. Do not let students take
home their slime because you will find it around campus. Keep the trash barrel in front of
the room, next to you, so that students do not reach in and take the slime. This can be
very messy if not controlled.

Accommodations: Students with an IEP can take the handout home if they need extra
time, not fill in the data table with other students’ values, and not go beyond the
conclusion.

Evaluation:
The problem statement, hypothesis, and ingredients are not worth points. Questions 1 –
18 are worth 2 points each, for a total of 36 points. A complete data table is worth 2
points. The pie chart is worth 2 points: the labels and correct values are 1 point each.
This assignment is worth a total of 40 points.

© NGSS Life Science 2015

 Name: _______________________ Row: _______

Date:_____________ Period:______

Slime Lab
You are going to attempt to make slime. All you have are the materials needed to make it. You
have to determine the correct order to add the materials and the percent composition (how much)
of each material. Your group is in competition with the other lab groups to see if they can make
the most stretchable slime. Each lab group will come up with their own team name for the
competition.

Team Name: _____________________________________

Problem Statement:
_____________________________________________________________________________
Hypothesis:
_____________________________________________________________________________
Ingredients:
__________________________________ _______________________________________
__________________________________ _______________________________________
Procedures: Attempt 1
1. ______ mL of glue poured into your cup.
2. ______ mL of water poured into your cup.
3. ______ mL of Borax solution poured into your cup.
4. ______ drops of foods coloring poured into your cup. Each drop will count as one mL.
5. ______ number of minutes you stirred your mixture.
__________________________________________________________________________
Attempt 2
You added to your mixture _____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Attempt 3
You added to your mixture _____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
6. Add up all the mL of glue added to your mixture: ___________
7. Add up all the mL of water added to your mixture: ___________
8. Add up all the mL of borax solution added to your mixture: ___________
9. Add up all the mL of food coloring added to your mixture: ___________
10. Total mL in your mixture: ___________

© NGSS Life Science 2015

11. What is the % composition of materials for your mixture? To find the % composition of
glue, divide the value in question 6 by the value in question 10 and then multiply by 100.
_______ % of glue, _______ % of water, _______ % of borax, ______ % of coloring
Experimental Data:

Qualitative Data Quantitative Data

Team Name State Viscosity Stretch Length
solid, in-between, liquid high, medium, low cm
1. ____________________ _____________ _____________ _____________
2. ____________________ _____________ _____________ _____________
3. ____________________ _____________ _____________ _____________

4. ____________________ _____________ _____________ _____________

5. ____________________ _____________ _____________ _____________

6. ____________________ _____________ _____________ _____________
7. ____________________ _____________ _____________ _____________
8. ____________________ _____________ _____________ _____________
9. ____________________ _____________ _____________ _____________
10. ___________________ _____________ _____________ _____________
11. ___________________ _____________ _____________ _____________
12. ___________________ _____________ _____________ _____________
13. ___________________ _____________ _____________ _____________

14. __________________ _____________ _____________ _____________

15. ___________________ _____________ _____________ _____________

Analysis:
12. Which team’s slime could be stretched the longest? _________________________
mL of glue used: _____________ mL of water used _________________
mL of borax used: _____________ mL of color used ________________
13. Total mL in the longest stretching mixture: ___________

© NGSS Life Science 2015

14. What % composition of materials did the longest stretching team have?
_______ % of glue, _______ % of water, _______ % of borax, ______ % of coloring
15. Conclusion:
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Go Further:
16. Which team’s slime had the highest viscosity? _________________________
17. Guess what % composition of materials would create the highest viscosity?
_______ % of glue, _______ % of water, _______ % of borax, ______ % of coloring
18. What ingredient caused their slime to have the highest viscosity ______________
_____________________________________________________________________
Graphing: Create a pie chart of percentages used in question fourteen. Please label.

© NGSS Life Science 2015