Just completely submerge your alligator egg in a glass or bowl of water, andwait. Within 12-24hrs, cracks will start to appear in the shell of the egg.And within 48hrs, you will have hatched your very own alligator. Leave it inthe water, and it will continue to grow! Once you take it out of the waterthough, after a few days it will start to shrink back down to its originalsize. Just put it back in the water, and it will start to grow again! Growinganimals and other things (brains etc!) that are made to increase in size inwater are made up of two polymers. One is poly(vinyl acetate) which keeps theoriginal proportions and shape of the item or creature, and the other polymeris polyacrylamide which is the super absorbent polymer. The growing creatureshave many teaching applications in science and math, including graphing,drawing conclusions, and measurement using linear, mass and volume.