Gluey Putty

1. Gluey Putty Vanderbilt Student Volunteers for Science Training Presentation Fall 2010

2. Important! • Please use this resource to reinforce your understanding of the lesson! Make sure you have read and understand the entire lesson prior to picking up the kit! • We recommend that you work through the kit with your team prior to going into the classroom. • This presentation does not contain the entire lesson—only selected experiments that may be difficult to visualize and/or understand.

3. Pre-Activity • Two VSVS volunteers should conduct the Introduction section of this lesson while the other one or two volunteers prepare the cups for the slime. • Count the students and prepare 1 cup for each student in the class by placing a ziplock bag inside a 10 cup. (This will resemble a trash can with a liner.) • Use small marked measuring cup for borax to pour 10 mL 4% borax solution into enough 1 oz cups for all students. • Do not add too much borax – it will make the gluey putty runny. • Add 400 mL water to the 1 L bottle of school glue (to the mark on the bottle). Shake the glue/water mixture very well before using - if this is not done, the gluey putty will be runny. • Use marked measuring cup for glue/water to pour 50 mL of 50% glue/50% water mixture into the ziploc bags inside the cups.

4. Other Important Tips • You can give these tips to the students before and after the lesson. • Do not put gluey putty in the sink! It can plug up the drain. Roll up the wax papers and toss them away after this activity. • Vinegar will help clean up any gluey putty that gets stuck in clothes or carpet. • The slime will last for several days in the ziplock bag, but if allowed to dry, it forms a dense solid.

5. I. Introduction • Please see the lesson for detailed instructions and explanations. • Discussion of solids, liquids and gases • Monomers and polymers • Plastic as a polymer • Human “polyethylene chain”

6. II. Demo—Skewering a Water-Filled Plastic Bag • Fill a plastic bag about 1/4th of the way full with water. • Show the students the bag and the skewer and ask them if they think you can push the skewer through the bag without having the water leak out. • Dip the tip of the skewer into the glycerin. Wipe off the excess. • Use a gentle twisting motion to insert the skewer into the bag. • Continue pushing on the skewer until it emerges through the opposite side. • The bag should not burst. If it does, try again with another bag. • Hold the skewered bag up for all students to see.

7. II. Demo: Superabsorbant polymer • Take the cap off the container of Insta-Sno (sodium polyacrylate) and pour all of it (1 tsp.) into the clear 10 oz cup. • Hold the cup up so that everyone can see it, and add all the water (60 mL) from the bottle. • Show students the fluffy snow-like particles that are produced. • Insta-Sno is so realistic that it is being used in indoor snowboarding parks. • Unlike traditional artificial snow, Insta-Sno will not melt or ice up. • Tell them that the white powder is a polymer called sodium polyacrylate. Additional uses of Sodium Polyacrylate: • Uses include high absorbency disposable diapers (show them the one from the kit box) and moisture absorbent for automobile and jet fuels. • This polymer absorbs about 300 times its weight of tap water.

8. III. Making Gluey Putty • Have students place the wax paper on top of the desk to protect the surface. • Give each student a sheet of wax paper to protect the work surface, 1 10 oz. cup containing a ziploc bag and 50 ml glue-water mixture, 1 1oz. cup containing10 ml clear 4% borax, a shell, a penny and 1 popsicle stick

9. III. Making Gluey Putty • Optional: Show the students the Borax box front cutout and explain that 40g of borax was added to a liter of water to make the 4% borax solution that is in the small cup on their desks. • Have students pour the borax solution into the bag with the glue/water mixture and stir with a popsicle stick.

10. Optional for middle school grade: Making gluey Putty with 20% or 80% glue/water mixtures. Instruct students to: • Measure either 10 mL or 40 mL of water, using the measuring cylinder. • Add the water to the 3.5 oz cup, and add glue to the 50 mL line. • Carefully stir the glue and water together. • Remove the white gluey putty previously made from the 10 oz cup. Add another plastic bag to the cup. PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW STUDENTS TO MAKE GLUEY PUTTY IN THE CUP WITHOUT THE BAG INSERT. • Have 2 VSVS members add two drops of food color (Blue in the 80%glue/20% water mixture, and green in the 20%glue/80% water mixture) to the appropriate cup and have the students mix. • Add the glue/water mixture to plastic bag insert and add 10 mL borax. • Stir and knead the gluey putty for a few minutes until their gluey putty is formed

11. IV. Determining the Properties of Gluey Putty • When the gluey putty is finished, have students perform the observations listed in the manual and on the Instruction sheet. • Do as many observations as time allows.

12. Sample Observations • Take the Gluey Putty out of the ziploc bag and squeeze the putty to form one mass. • Is it more like a solid or a liquid when it is in this mass and why? (solid; definite shape). • Break off half of the putty, squeeze it into a ball, and roll it gently between the palms of the hands to smooth the ball. Place the ball of putty on the sheet of wax paper. Observe the ball when it is first placed on the paper, then do the next step. • Squeeze the other half of the putty between your hands to form a flat pancake. Grasp one edge of the pancake and hold it in the air at eye level. • Is it more like a liquid or a solid here? (liquid - because it flows).

13. V. Tearing a Newspaper • This can be done either as a demonstration or by the students. • Give each student one of the small pieces of newspaper. • Tell them to tear it one way and then the other way. • They will find that it tears straight in one direction and crooked when they tear the other way. • Explain that newspaper is made from cellulose, a long-chain polymer of β-glucose monomers. • When you tear one way, you are tearing between chains (parallel to chains), and you get a cleaner tear. • Tearing the other way doesn't give a straight tear because you are tearing across the chains. • Tearing the newspaper is one way to show that polymers exist in nature. Other examples students would be familiar with are proteins, DNA, RNA, starch.

14. Wrap-Up • Have students put the gluey putty into the ziploc bag and seal it so they can take it home. • Remind them about the following: • Do not put gluey putty in the sink! It can plug up the drain. • Gluey putty will get stuck to clothes or carpet. If this happens, use vinegar to help remove it. • The gluey putty will keep about two weeks. Warn them about not eating the gluey putty and they shouldn't let little brothers or little sisters play with it.

15. CLEAN-UP: Roll up the wax papers with popsicle sticks and throw them away after this activity. Put all used cups in the trash bag and place it in the kit. We re-use plastic cups. Go over the observation sheet responses with students and ask: When does the slime act like a solid? Liquid? How do you know if a chemical or physical change occurs when the gluey putty is made? VI. Clean-Up and Review