Having the slime of their lives

If it involves slime, children will come. Mix in a chemistry lesson and children will learn.

"I think I'm calling this glop for today," said instructor Dr. Jim McGill, holding up a handful of chunky gel before a class of reserved 9- to 13-year-olds. "What is this?"

"Glop?" said a boy, evoking giggles from the class.

"It's called sodium polyacrylate," which is a superabsorbent polymer that is used in diapers, McGill said. "It catches the baby's pee pee and holds it really tight."

More giggles. The children are finally in full slime-making mode.

About 14 children spent Sunday afternoon making various forms of slime in the class "You've Been Slimed" at Southeast Missouri State University as part of the Extended and Continuing Education program. The focus was polymers, which are chains of simple molecules that, when linked together, have different physical properties than the original molecules.

Using household ingredients such as starches, a laundry booster, glues, water and food coloring, McGill created colorful concoctions with such names as glop, gloop, oobleck, slime, gak and silly putty.

"Yours looks like a loogie," said 9-year-old Matthew Clark to his new friend who dangled army green gloop from his stirring stick. Nine-year-old Levi Ambler and Matthew, both of Cape Girardeau, had met for the first time in the class and were already cracking jokes about loogie monsters.

"I like chemistry and stuff," said Matthew about his motives.

Levi joined because "I wanted to learn how to make slime so I can torment my brother and stuff."

Meanwhile, 10-year-old Shelby Fadler made a face of disgust as she squeezed her blue-gray wad of gloop, trying to wring out the extra moisture.

Shelby, of Jackson, had asked her mother to sign her up for the class, mainly because of the slime. Though science is not her favorite subject, she said, she learned how common atoms can make up something cool.

McGill frequently explained the characteristics of each of the slimes as polymers. Oobleck -- just cornstarch and water -- is an unusual polymer that hardens when pressure is applied to it but melts when left alone.

Despite his explanations, McGill faced questions like "Is it supposed to melt in your hands?" "Can I pour this on my dad's head?" and "Is this like science or stuff?"

Nearing the end of class, McGill stood before the children and asked what a polymer was.

One girl quickly answered, "Polymers are atoms joined together, and two polymers can join together and make a net."

McGill raised his eyebrows. "That's true," he said.

Slime taught them something after all.

jmetelski@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 127