Monday: Today with my friends Betty, Nayeli, and Audrey Sutton, we researched different experiments. We came across one that caught our eye and it was a lab that shows how to make polymer bouncy balls. To make the bouncy balls, we would need: borax, cornstarch, warm water, food coloring, measuring spoons, a stirring stick, 2 cups/containers, a marker, and a ziploc bag. When we planned this lab we had the essential question(s) of: What is a polymer? How can you make a ball from a polymer? What makes a polymer bounce? To answer these questions, we plan on running the lab Wednesday. The tutorial we found on this lab can be found here: http://chemistry.about.com/od/demonstrationsexperiments/ss/bounceball.htm Wednesday: It's experiment day! We gathered all of our materials and set up a table to run the lab at. First, we all wrote on one of our cups "ball mixture", and the other "borax solution". While the others in my group were setting up the materials, I went to the sink and got a bowl of warm water. Once I had the water, we were ready to start. First, we put 2 tablespoons of warm water and 1/2 teaspoon borax in the "borax solution" cup and stirred until the borax was dissolved. Next we put 1 tablespoon of glue in the "ball mixture" cup along with 1/2 teaspoon of the "borax solution" we made and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. We swirled around the ingredients in this cup until they looked somewhat solid, and started to stir. After it was stirred we took out the mixture and started forming it into ball. Sadly, the balls didn't look the same way they did in the tutorial, and we thought we did something wrong, so we all made a second ball. On our second try we followed the instructions carefully and paid more attention to the accuracy of our measurements. Once we finished following all the steps, the balls seemed to form better, but still weren't all the way dry, so Nayeli and I went to the bathroom and used the hand dryers to help harden the mixture. When we came back, we were able to form the mix into a ball, except it kept crumbling. We realized that by dipping the ball in water and putting some cornstarch on our hands would help to form the ball. Eventually I was able to actually form a ball, but it still did not bounce as it wasn't fully dry. I set mine up in a cubby and left it over night, but when I returned the next day it had flattened into a pancake shape. In the end, we all were able to create polymer balls, but Betty's was the only one to fully dry and bounce. The science behind our polymer bouncy balls:
First off, what's a polymer? Polymers are made up of a ton of molecules strung together in the form of a chain. The way a polymer acts depends on how the molecules are connected. Monomers are what mainly build up polymers. Monomers are small molecules formed together in a repeating pattern that form polymers How can you make a ball from a polymer? In order to make a ball, we had to go through the process of polymerization. Polymerization is essentially the process of multiple smaller monomers bonding together to create the polymer, or in our case a rubbery like bouncy ball. When going through polymerization chemical groups in the monomers are lost so that they may join together. In our experiment the glue was what formed a more rubbery substance, which allowed the ball to bounce. Final Reflection: Overall, I found this experiment very fun and interesting. It was fun to work with some new people and I enjoyed it. I hope to work with these people again soon. One thing I would change is paying close attention to the instructions. I think there was some confusion when we wrote them down, which caused us to mess up in our lab. Next time I plan on printing the instructions from the tutorial, rather than using the paraphrased ones my group came up with.
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