Jelly Marbles - Clear Spheres
Superabsorbent giant growing polymers
Usually ships out the next day.
Recommend for 6 years & up with adult supervision.
Place these tiny, solid spheres in water, and in just a little while you will have your own Jelly Marbles. These superabsorbent marbles are the newest craze around the Spangler Science offices! What starts out as a 3mm pebble, quickly becomes an approximately 20mm ball of jelly! Similar to our Water Jelly Crystals, these Jelly Marbles absorb a lot of water, plus they maintain their spherical shape when they are done growing. Not only are these superabsorbent marbles fun, they teach a valuable lesson about the power of polymers. In fact, Jelly Marbles are an example of amazing Hydrogels... superabsorbent polymers that are saving the environment.
Can't get enough of these growing Jelly Marbles? Check out our Jelly Marbles Kit!
What's included?
- 50 gram jar of Jelly Marbles
- True Colors Color Mixing Tablets
- Activity guide
What does it teach?
Like all of our fun and fascinating polymer, or Hydrogel, products, these tiny spheres, teach a big lesson in color, light and the importance these thirsty pebbles can play in maintaining a healthy environment. The possibilities for experimentation are endless when you drop these spheres in water. Put them in one of our Baby Soda Bottles and they grow to the shape of the test tube. Try drying them out to see how quickly evaporation can take over… and then use them again and again. Plus, you can only imagine the fun to be at the Spangler Science offices when Halloween rolls around... imagine the surprise when unsuspecting trick-or-treaters place their hands into a bowl of ooey, gooey, “eyeballs!”Product FAQ
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What happens if some of my spheres break?
Don't worry, we've included an entire section in the activity guide with experiments you can do with broken Jelly Marbles?
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How many spheres come in the packet?
In the 50 gram jar, there are more than 1,000 spheres!
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How large to they get?
They start out as only a 3 mm pebble and grow to approximately 20 mm!

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Jelly Marbles
September 27th, 2011
Click the thumbnail below to see the video.
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My favorite product from Steve Spangler Science
Mary Roberge - December 1, 2011
THis one made me like science again. Great for pranks and teaching! |
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Jelly Marbles
Denise Dillman - November 7, 2011
Kids loved them! We called them ghost eggs when we did Halloween Science. thank you for making science fun for my kids. |
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Jelly Marbles Review
Kristen Edgar - October 3, 2011
This is great! The kids love it, and it came very fast. I'm pleased with this service. Thanks! |
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Jelly Marbles
Debbie Jones - June 27, 2011
Loved them! They worked just as promised. I used them for "grapes" for kids to stomp in a Bible School play. The kids had a great time and wanted to know where I got them, so you may have a mad rush on orders soon! |
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So much fun!!
Mike Mick - June 15, 2011
These were great! My son was disappointed after seeing a YouTube video claiming to be able to make these with some combination of baking soda/vinegar and some other ingredients. Lo and behold, Steve Spangler to the rescue! Both kids (and let's be honest, both adults too) absolutely had a blast with these. Plenty to go around and a little goes a long way. Thanks!! |
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Jelly marbles!
Lara - March 11, 2011
Love these and the fact that they came with fizzy color changing tablets. My students enjoyed growing them and talking about the comparative sizes. They also noted the change from a hard sphere to a more gellatinous feeling. I loved discovering that they polymers would not absorb water and food coloring-they only changed color with the fizzing tablets. We extended our original exploration throughout the week and had many surprising observations... |
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Jelly Marbles
Nathan Carlson - January 1, 2011
I guarantee your kids want be able to keep their hands of these things. They love putting their hands into the water and magically pulling out a hand full of marbles. They seem to last forever too if you keep them in water. |
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Great Fun!
judy bastein - December 1, 2010
I love the jelly marbles and will be using them this holiday as a center piece/decoration (using red and green water) around the house. I will have fun with them before I introduce 'another form of matter' to my students. I know they will bit a hit. Thank you! |
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AWESOME
brenda Emmert - November 10, 2010
They were so neat. The kids loved them and we used them as "eyeballs" for a mystery halloween game. We also used the atomic glow and they thought that was the best thing ever. I am sending the extras to school for their science teacher to use. You get a decent amount, actually a lot for the price. Very nice and fun to do with the kids. They were checking the growth every hour or so. |
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Great Little Marbles
Mom of 3 girls - October 31, 2010
These marbles really are impressive. |
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Slippery, squishy fun
Bethany Templeton - September 27, 2010
I'm a children's librarian, and I ordered some products to start a weekend science program. The jelly marbles were on the list, and I dropped a few into a cup of water as soon as I opened the box. A few hours later, it was my favorite thing to show the kids (and coworkers). Dip your hand into what looks like a clear glass a water ... and you feel squishy jellies! Some kids wanted to drop new marbles into the water, others wanted to take a marble home to play with. They were a hit! |
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Best Visual Ever!
Jenny Brown - July 23, 2010
I've used these as a visual for children, teens and adults and the reaction is always the same - amazement. It's like your eyes are playing tricks on you. Everyone has to touch them, they are so cool. I love that so many come in each package - more than enough for several demonstrations. |
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Slow... product description a little misleading.
DD - June 17, 2010
In the product description it says : |
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Halloween Fun
Jan Mc. - March 15, 2010
We used these for one activity at our classroom Halloween party. We got a big black cauldron and filled it with water and the spheres. (Just a bucket full of water, right? Wrong!) The game was "The Invisible Eyeball Challenge." We had the cauldron behind a curtain, and the kids came back one at a time. If they were brave enough to face the challenge and stick their hand into the cauldron, they got an eyeball-themed prize (bouncy eyeball, sticky eyeball, eyeball ring or eyeball bracelet). This was a huge hit with the kids and all the parents. After everyone had a turn, we showed everyone the spheres and discussed the science behind the fun. |
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good
Lauren - March 1, 2010
this is soooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) |
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Loved it
Don Findlay - January 22, 2010
Hello, I have purchased quite a few of your products and have enjoyed them all. I do a science club with fourth and fifth grade students. I wish I could get other products that you have. My classroom is right at the front door. I noticed that two or three students would still be here a half hour after school was out. Parents were always late picking them up. One day I invited them into my classroom and gave them a few jelly marbles and told them what to do with them. I teach fifth grade and these students are third graders. Word had gotten around that third grade class and within the next two weeks they were stopping by after school asking if they could have some of those soft round balls. I only had a small amount left so I had to reorder for them. I also did the activity with my four year old grandson. He also really enjoyed it. Sometime I would like to get the necessary materials needed for the double-dipping activity. Thanks, Don K. Schmidt |
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Melissa Highlands Ranch, CO - December 21, 2009
Before I called the kids over, I let some of the Jelly Marbles sit in a clear cup for about 4 hours. Then, I had my scientists (ages 10,7, and 3) stick their fingers in the cup. Since the Jelly Marbles expand and become absolutely transparent, imagine their surprise! The 3 yo and 7 yo mixing colors for the Jelly Marbles to absorb. Fun! (Note: the kidlets say that the Jelly Marbles feel like eyeballs. I asked them how they knew what a bowl of eyeballs felt like…..but they’re right. We did several of the activities in the guide, but I think lots of fun was had just by handling the Jelly Marbles, squishing them, and wondering why the heck they disappear in water. Everytime someone went by the bowl, they’d say, “That is so cool.” From an educational viewpoint, there are lots of things to talk about; refraction, movement of water and dye (when you use the included coloring tablets), and then watched amazed as the marbles returned to their original size after drying out over several days. Why |
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AWESOME
Mike O'Connell St. Louis MIssouri - November 14, 2009
I found out about these from the Steve Spangler video on YouTube. I knew I had to get some to play around with. My friends' minds are all totally blown now. |
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Kids loved this
JL Herndon, VA - November 9, 2009
I got this for my child's birthday party and the kids were amazed to see us pulled the spheres out of the water and then see them disappear into the water when the spheres were placed back into the water. We gave the kids a ziploc bag each which they filled with couple of spheres and some water to bring them home. |
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Happy Jelly Marbles
Tamara Lewis Steamboat Springs - October 23, 2009
My daughter wanted the jelly marbles and chose to get them with her own allowance money, what a great purchase. You get everything for the money and wonderful learning activities meant for teachers, but just as good and even better for parents! Thanks! |
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Fun in the kiddy pool
Lisa Littleton - August 19, 2009
Shhh...Don't tell anyone, but I used them with my two year old. He was highly supervised, of course, because I'm that kind of mom. Guess what?!? It's okay to do science with young children. My son LOVED these. He couldn't believe his eyes when we put them in water just before nap time and by the time he woke up, they were huge! Talk about the joy of discovering! I even got a little more crazy and threw a couple in his kiddy pool for him to find. It was a great game. We played this game for hours and it wore him out for a nice long nap. |
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AMAZING!!!!!
Delaney Walsh Livonia, MI - July 30, 2009
well... i think that these crystle marbles r the best! at my vacation bible school for science we made them and we got to take some home that were not big yet. i really think that they r the best!!!!!!!! (; |
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