Overview
What’s better than playing with slime? Playing with slime for Science!
Learn about the Science behind slime and bath bombs, and why molecules in these substances behave the way they do. This VC gives students a chance to explore states of matter, how slime defies these definitions, and begin to look at the scientific method and chemical reactions.
Students will have a chance to make their own slime and conduct a series of brief experiments to see which of the states of matter their slime may exist in. The session concludes with students using the scientific method to explore chemical reactions with bath bombs.
Background Information
Matter can exist in one of three main states: solid, liquid, or gas.
Slime acts as a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning it does not align easily with one specific state of matter.
The states of matter of a material can also be changed through chemical reactions, creating new substances which exist in a different state than previously observed.
Year Level: 3-6
Duration: 1 hour
STEM in a Box
Yes, you will receive hands-on materials for students to use during the session.
You will also receive a teacher guide for this program.
Prior Knowledge
This program does not require any prior knowledge as all terms are explored with the students.
Learning Intentions
In this video conference students will:
- Recognize the three states of matter and define each state
- Formulate a hypothesis for a simple experiment
- Understand the importance of consistent and exact measurements when conducting experiments.
Activities
In this video conference students will:
- Make slime
- Conduct simple experimental tests on the slime they create
- Formulate a hypothesis and discuss the results of a simple scientific experiment
Victorian Curriculum 2.0
Science: Science Understanding
- Solids, liquids and gases have observable properties; adding or removing heat energy leads to a change of state between solids, liquids and gases (VC2S4U04)
- The observable properties of matter (solids, liquids and gases) can be explained by modelling the motion and arrangement of their particles; mixtures (including solutions) can be formed by combining 2 or more different substances (VC2S6U03)
Science: Science Inquiry
- Observations can be used as a basis for posing questions to identify patterns and relationships, and to predict the outcomes of investigations (VC2S4I01)