Polymer Science fun

For Christmas Doodle and Roo both got some cool science kits from my grandma. Roo has had a blast with the kit- one of the tubes had some tiny polymer beads. He soaked them in water- and they grew to the size of marbles. We all spent Saturday trying to find ways to make them shrink back to the small size quickly. We tried the blow dryer, the food dehydrator, putting them in a pan on the stove, dumping salt on them (Bug's idea- he said it worked for slugs- it might work for polymers- good hypothesis- but no luck!)

The beads- about the size of a pinhead- (not a real good picture- they are inside an orange plastic cup- lol)

Here's the "marbles" at various sizes- the ones in the ziplock bag didn't shrink at all. The circle of balls on the right were Doodle's experiment- he put a glass over the top of them. It slowed their shrinking.In Roo's kit also were some "Ice cube" shaped polymers. the left is before, and the right is after soaking in water overnight. They more than doubled in size.Roo- writing his observations We have had a blast with Polymers!