The Smitizen News…

Kyra’s mom (Dr. Powers) graciously came to visit us last week to share all of her knowledge about matter, chemical changes, physical changes, and other interesting facts. She is a Biochemistry Professor at Grand Valley, so she is our resident expert! She brought some really fantastic demonstations with her and shared so many great facts with the kids. We cannot thank her enough. She even made ice cream with Liquid Nitrogen! How cool is that? Anyway, check out the pictures below to see our fabulous fourth graders in action. Below that is a recipe from Dr. Powers on how to make the “silly putty”.

Silly Putty

1. Pour white Elmer’s glue into a plastic container or ziploc bag (~1 T).

2. Prepare saturated borax solution: add 1 tablespoon of Borax powder to 1 cup of water. Borax is a type of powdered soap that is available at Meijer.

3. Put 1-2 drops of food coloring in the glue. Using a wooden stir stick, mix in the color. After the color is stirred in, add ~1 T borax solution and continue to stir with wooden stick. After the silly putty is formed, remove putty from cup/bag and work it in their hands to get the excess water out. Putty can be stored in the cup/bag.