Simple Science: Making Your Own Summer Putty Dean Andrew Lyon offers an easy experiment to make with your kids this summer

July 7, 2016

Did you know that Chapman recently broke ground on its most innovative building to date? The 140,000 square-foot Center for Science and Technology is the manifestation of Chapman’s ongoing commitment to scientific advancement and discovery. Get your future Panthers in the scientific spirit with this engaging and silly experiment, recommended by Chapman’s own Andrew Lyon, Dean of Schmid College of Science and Technology.

Making summer “silly” putty would seem like a difficult process, one that likely involves plenty of chemicals and toy company secrets. But in actuality, anyone can make silly putty – at least according to Dean Lyon. “(This experiment) is
always a crowd-pleaser, and is related to my own research in gels and soft-matter physics.”

Materials:

White Glue

Liquid Starch

Two Bowls

One Tablespoon

Food coloring

1. Mix 2 Tbls. of your white glue into a bowl and include your choice of food coloring (We suggest Chapman Red.)

2. Pour 1 Tbl. liquid starch into a second bowl.

3. Slowly pour the glue mixture on top of the liquid starch.

4. Allow the mixture to stand for 5 minutes, or until the glue absorbs the liquid starch.

5. Remove the putty from the bowl and knead it. At first this mixture might look like it’s a mistake, but it isn’t. The more you knead the putty, the better it will be.