This was one of my FAVORITE science experiments we have done this year...and it was totally last minute!

Materials:

Sharp pencils, must be sharpened to a point!

Baggies that can hold water

Water

Optional: Bowl, you know, just in case.

Prep: 

Fill the bags 3/4 of the way full

Sharpen pencils

It seriously is one of the lowest prep science experiments we have done ever! 

I had one student hold the bag while another poked their pencil through. The trick is to go slowly!

I tried it with more baggies than I would like to tell, just because it was so much fun!

The kids LOVED sticking their pencils through the bag. They did a great job going slow, and not poking each other with those super sharp pencils! Explaining how it worked got a little tricky since they are pretty young, but I did my best:

The baggies are made of plastic. The plastic is made of a special kind of material that makes it easy to shape and hold things. I took a baggie and stretched it out real thin so they could see that the plastic was very durable and stretchy. When we poke a hole through the baggie with the pencil, the plastic is going around the pencil and not letting a hole be made. This is what keeps the water in!

I tried my best to explain how polymers work in words that a 7/8 year old could understand.

#chemistry

They loved it and had fun! I loved the lack of mess, easy prep, and low maintenance experiment!

Aimee