How to Make a Bouncy Ball

Let’s go outside and make something fun. Something like this bouncy ball experiment. I try to do science experiments outside as much as possible, because it leads to easier clean up. I don ‘t limit them to outside out, but outside is much easier to clean up, and that means I usually enjoy them more.

Making a Bouncy Ball

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There have been a number of times that I have come across a recipe to make your own bouncy or rubber balls. We never tried them because I didn’t see how it could work. Finally, we tried it.

What you need:

• 3 tbsp warm water
• 1 tsp borax
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp glue

How to make a Bouncy Ball:

So we started out with two containers, one for our ‘ball’ and one for ‘borax’. We did end up switching them at some point though it made no difference.

In the BORAX container mix 2 tbsp warm water with 1/2 tsp borax, stir until dissolved, and add colour if you’d like.

In the BALL container, put 1 tbsp glue and add 1/2 tsp of the borax mixture, and 1 tbsp of cornstarch. Mix it together.

It gets hard to stir then you get to mold it with your hands until it gets less sticky.

I wasn’t too sure if this one came out right so we tried again, turns out it was right!

She had fun, it bounced. It dried up quite quickly, after about 30 minutes or so of her playing with it.

*Sometime I would like for us to try it with clear glue to see the color better.*

Check out some of our other science experiments on our science experiment page. We have a lot of mess making experiments that might want to take outside.

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