Materials Needed

• glue
• rubber cement
• peanut butter
• homemade glue
• paper plates
• 4 paper cups
• string
• large paper clips
• lots of pennies

Instructions

1. Make a Stick-o-Meter to find out what's stickier. If you made homemade glue in the ZOOMsci, Glue, you can use a Stick-o-Meter to compare its stickiness with other types of glue. You'll need to make a Stick-o-Meter for every type of sticky stuff you test.
2. Check with a grown-up before you begin.
3. To make a Stick-o-Meter, cut a strip about 2 inches wide all the way across a paper plate.
4. Punch a hole at each end of the strip and fold it in thirds.
5. Put the glue you want to test on the middle third of the strip and glue the strip to a paper plate. Do this for each type of glue that you want to test. Remember to always put the same amount of glue on each strip. That way one type of glue doesn't have more of the strip to hold on to than the others.
6. Let the glue dry for about an hour.
7. By testing the number of pennies that can hang from each type of glue, you can measure the force that is needed to break the adhesive bond (the stickiness) of the glue.
8. Punch two holes on either side of a paper cup. Tie each end of a piece of string to each of the holes in the cup. The string makes a handle for the cup.
9. Twist a paper clip so that it looks like a hook. Attach one end to the two holes in the strip of cardboard and the other end to the string handle on the cup.
10. Hold the Stick-o-Meter so the cup doesn't rest on any surface. Now count the number of pennies you can put into the cup before the cardboard strip pulls away from the paper plate.