KAYSVILLE — Slime oozed across the table, dripped from hands and bounced off walls during a special science lab Friday at Davis High School.
Westminster College Chemistry Club members taught students of the Davis High Science Technology Engineering Mathematics learning community the proper way to make slime.
The slime comes in whatever color the student chooses, so there were several colors and combinations; some mixed in glitter, while others didn’t.
Students from both Davis High School and Westminster College are members of the American Chemical Society Chemistry Club.
“This is about one of the only high schools with a chem club,” said Professor Robyn Hyde from Westminster College.
Davis is the only high school the Westminster students and professors visit to help students interested in science. Hyde said they do demonstrations at many elementary schools.
But this was a hands-on experiment that all of the students found fun, even those who had made slime before.
Davis High student Daniel Page measured 25 milliliters of three percent polyvinyl alcohol carefully into a cylinder, then poured it into a small plastic bag. He then added 10 milliliters of colored 3 percent sodium borate (Borax), but as he picked up a bottle of silver glitter, it spilled onto his paper. It was easy for him to use the paper to transfer the glitter into the bag. It was more glitter than he had intended to use, but his slime really sparkled.
He squeezed the bag for about a minute to combine the ingredients.
The students did an analysis on the slime to see how far it would stretch and how high it would bounce.
Hyde told Page to add the rate of sliming.
“It has a good slimy factor,” she said as Page held the slime in the air next to a ruler. “I wonder if the glitter gives structural integrity.”
To find out, Page mixed a batch of slime without the glitter.
“Without the glitter in it, it fell a lot faster,” Page said. “I thought it was pretty cool. We don’t usually get to do really fun labs and then take it home. I have done it with glue, but this is a lot better.”
Arthur Eby from Westminster’s club helped the younger students with the experiment and also did his own. He tried to add air to his by using a bulb and forcing air into it.
“I just did it for fun,” Eby said.
And his classmate Doug Bergquist added, “Fun, that’s what chemistry is all about.”
“We do this each year to get kids more interested in science,” said DHS chemistry teacher Stacey Howell.
DHS senior Nathaniel Quigley said it was a really fun thing to do.
“I am already involved in science, this just shows science is fun,” Quigley said. “I have made it before, but it never worked out quite this well. This time it turned out amazing.”
Hyde said slime can be made at home with easily obtained ingredients.
Members of the community can see demonstrations and do hands-on experiments from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at Davis High School.
“There will be demonstrations and hands-on and even CSI stuff,” said Howell.
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