Slime and Tortillas

This morning, I helped out Marie with her Science in the Summer class. Before I got there, the kids had made their own race cars out of cardboard tubes, plastic lids, play dough, and straws. They each painted them to their liking, and, as a group, decorated a paper race track to race them on. The "engine" was a taped on, blown up balloon, that was designed to propel the car while the air was leaving the balloon.

We quickly discovered that the cars weren't quite fit to race. When we released the air from the balloons, most of the cars just spun in circles, but we explained to the kids that that's what science is about, trial and error, having fun, and seeing what works and what doesn't.

After a short break outside, we showed the kids how to make gooey, neon slime out of borax dissolved in water, glue, shaving cream, and contact solution. The result was multiple batches of colorful, viscous slime that the kids combined into tie dye patterns.

Here are a few of the kids with their slime:

 In the afternoon, I helped out with a cooking class, where we taught the young chefs how to make homemade corn tortillas. We showed them how to properly chop up the veggies to go in a taco, and managed to only have one minor injury with the knives. After, we all ate our tortillas, and the kids got to bring home the dough to help their parents make tacos at home: