Slime Shop: Engineer Your Own Slime

Overview

There are many different ways to make slime. In this lesson plan, your students will use the engineering design process to design their own slime product. They will need to decide on the desired properties for their slime and then experiment to find the best recipe.

NGSS Alignment

This lesson helps students prepare for these Next Generation Science Standards Performance Expectations:

• 3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
• 5-PS1-4. Conduct an investigation to determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.
• Optional: 5-PS1-2. Measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that regardless of the type of change that occurs when heating, cooling, or mixing substances, the total weight of matter is conserved. (see Variations)

This lesson focuses on these aspects of NGSS Three Dimensional Learning:

Science & Engineering Practices	Disciplinary Core Ideas	Crosscutting Concepts
Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions. Generate and compare multiple solutions to a problem based on how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the design problem. Planning and Carrying Out Investigations. Make observations and measurements to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence for an explanation of a phenomenon.	ETS1.A: Defining and Delimiting Engineering Problems. Possible solutions to a problem are limited by available materials and resources (constraints). The success of a designed solution is determined by considering the desired features of a solution (criteria). Different proposals for solutions can be compared on the basis of how well each one meets the specified criteria for success or how well each takes the constraints into account. PS1.B: Chemical Reactions. When two or more different substances are mixed, a new substance with different properties may be formed.	Stability and Change. Change is measured in terms of differences over time and may occur at different rates.

Materials

For the main slime recipe, each group will need the following materials:

• Washable PVA school glue (like Elmer's®)
• Water
• Baking soda
• Contact lens solution (must contain both boric acid and sodium borate in ingredients)
• Food coloring
• Measuring spoons
• Measuring cup
• Mixing bowl
• Spatula
• Resealable plastic bags or food storage containers
• Cafeteria tray or other material to protect their work surface and make clean-up easier. Avoid porous materials like newspaper or cardboard, as they will absorb some of the slime.

You should also provide at least two additives that will allow students to change the properties of their slime:

• Glitter (sparkly slime)
• Iron filings (magnetic slime)
• Glow-in-the-dark paint (glow-in-the-dark slime)
• Thermochromic pigment (color-changing slime)
• Tonic water (glow-in-black-light slime)
• Foam shaving cream (fluffy slime)