Diaper Experiment...Ewwwww

I love chemistry, and anytime I get to do an experiment for someone, I do. I have one that you can do with your kids that may perk their science minds. I promise they will love this. Here goes. (P.S. try it first so you get the hang of it before you show it to your kids.)

You need:
• 3 small Styrofoam cups
• Sodium polyacrylate powder: cut open top layer of two diapers and dump little white beads into a large bowl. They are all around the cotton in the diaper. [I would suggest unused diapers]
• Glass/beaker of water

Procedure
1. Measure 1/3 teaspoon of sodium polyacrylate into one cup. If you want to make it more fun, dont tell them anything is in the cup. I usually put in more than 1/3 tsp.
2. Slowly pour 25-30 mL of water into the cup with the sodium polyacrylate.
3. As in a shell game, ask your kids to keep their eye on the cup containing the
water. You will move the cups around into a different order.
4. Ask the students which cup contains the water. Hold the cup of their choice into the air and turn over. (Nothing should empty). If you filled the other cups with the polyacrylate powder, you can do it two more times and amaze them.

The trick is the powder. It has an amazing ability to hold many times its weight in water and attach with other beads of the powder to clump. You can tell them that it is a polymer, which can also be found in plastics, rubbers, eye glasses, sandwich bags, raincoats, shirts, pants and nearly everything you see in your house. Your body even has these amazing molecules. Tell me if you want more and I will post them. Enjoy!