ZOOM Glue

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In this activity, learners mix milk, vinegar, baking soda, and water to create sticky glue. Use this activity to explain how engineers develop and evaluate new materials and products. Learners compare the stickiness of their glue against white glue, a glue stick, and peanut butter using the "stick-o-meter" test. [Activity is publicly available through a web crawler capture on Archive.org.]

Quick Guide

Preparation Time:
Under 5 minutes
Learning Time:
45 to 60 minutes
Estimated Materials Cost:
$1 - $5 per student
Age Range:
Ages 6 - 11
Resource Types:
Activity, Experiment/Lab Activity
Language:
English, Spanish

Materials List (per student)

  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • 2 tablespoons vinegar
  • 2 large paper cups
  • 5 paper towels
  • rubber band
  • plastic spoon
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • test strip (1 in. x 8 in. piece of paper)
  • paper plate
  • paper cup
  • hold punch
  • string
  • large paperclip
  • pennies
  • (optional) white glue
  • (optional) glue stick
  • (optional) peanut butter

Keywords

Subjects

  • Engineering and Technology
    • Engineering
      • Chemical Engineering
      • Metallurgy and Materials Engineering
  • Physical Sciences
    • Chemistry
      • Chemical Reactions
      • Acids and Bases
      • Solutions
    • States of Matter
      • Solids
      • Liquids
    • Structure and Properties of Matter
      • Atomic Structure
      • Volume and Density
  • The Nature of Science
    • The Scientific Process
      • Asking Questions
      • Conducting Investigations
      • Gathering Data
      • Formulating Explanations
      • Communicating Results

Informal Categories

  • Food and Cooking

Audience

To use this activity, learners need to:

  • see
  • touch

Learning styles supported:

  • Involves hands-on or lab activities

Other

Foreign language versions of this resource:

This resource is part of:

Access Rights:

  • Free access

By:

Rights:

  • All rights reserved, WGBH Educational Foundation, 2003

Funding Sources:

  • National Science Foundation, 0229796
  • Corporation for Public Broadcasting
  • PBS