Discovery Time at the Museum features a fun as well as interesting activity on behalf of kids. The activity is led by a gallery educator in the Rotunda area. I was able to catch up with Miss Cami at Discovery Time as she made polyworms!
filling the cup 1/2 full with worm activator!
 
 
 
Step 1: Miss Cami pours the “worm activator” (a solution of calcium chloride) into a cup.
Adding worm goo to the worm activator
 
 
 
Step 2: The kids squeeze the colored “worm goo” (sodium alginate + food coloring) into the cup of worm activator.
Finished polyworms!
 
 
 
Step 3: Wait a few seconds as well as then utilize the spoon or your fingers to get the worm out!
 
 
 
 WOW! it’s a squishy, slimy worm! If you squeeze the worm hard sufficient though, it shall pop as well as the worm’s “guts” shall ooze out again! Eeew! The worms may look like candy, but you wouldn’t desire to eat these worms! Yuck!
A funky shaped worm
S0, what is it? These are special polymer worms. Polymers are made up of numerous molecules linked combined to form really long chains. Poly- means “many” as well as -mer means “part”. Things that we can’t see made the polymers link together. This is a chemical reaction. When the calcium in the worm activator as well as the worm goo mix, the chemical reaction links the worm goo polymers together, making a polymer strand. You can find everything you require to manufacture Polyworms on stevespanglerscience.com.
Making polyworms!
 
 
The kids looked like they were having so much fun, I wanted to manufacture one too! Check out this as well as other fun activities held in the Rotunda during Discovery Time!! I hope to see you there!
–Miss Patty