The Slimy Science Kit From the Black Lagoon

The latest installment from the keeping my kids busy this summer files is "The Slimy Science Kit From The Black Lagoon" by Scholastic.  My older son got this from a Scholastic book order during the school year.

The kit comes with a book of simple experiments, a plastic tray, a packet of black powder, and two plastic test tubes.  My kids did the first experiment in the book, "Create Your Own Black Lagoon".  Its a very simple experiment where you create slime (or Ooblack) using the black powder packet, water, the plastic tray, and a spoon.  I loved that all the extra materials were things that we had on hand already.  Here are some pictures from our experiment.

Pouring the black powder into the tray:

Pouring in the water, little brother gets interested too:

Taking turns stirring:

It started really liquid and got more solid as time went on.  We talked about the difference between a solid and a liquid.  There is a simple scientific explanation after each experiment. This was super easy and kept the boys busy for about a 1/2 hour.  It is messy though as the tray is pretty shallow.  The other experiments in book look pretty simple too.  They are:

1. Make Floating Snot
2. Construct an Erupting Volcano
3. Create a Self Inflating Balloon
4. Grow a Salt Stalacite
5. Make Invisible Ink