Mathematics & Science Center Oil Spill Clean-Up: The Natural Way! Image courtesy of EPA

Oil Spills… A Fact of Life Photo by EPA

Spills Result From…. Accidents Dumping Our “drains” Photo by EPA

Various Types of Substances Find Their Way to the Bay Photo by N. Hamm

And Have Negative Effects on the Ecosystem, Organisms, and US! Photo by NOAA

Oil and Water What happens when oil and water mix? How can oil harm living organisms? Photo by N. Hamm

Oil Floats on Water Homogeneous mixture Heterogeneous mixture Photo by NOAA

Oil Spill Spreading With low wind speedWith low wind speed With high wind speedWith high wind speed Photo by NOAA

How Would YOU Clean-up an Oil Spill? Photo by EPA

Methods of Clean-up Biological Chemical Physical (or Mechanical) Photo by EPA

BOOMS are First Used to Contain the Oil Spill Photo by EPA

Biological Methods Photo by NOAA

Chemical Photo by EPA

Physical Mechanical Photo by EPA

Why Not Use… NATURAL RESOURCES! Occur naturally or are natural by-products Are readily available Do not harm the environment Are they effective? Which is best?

Your Task for Today Conduct an experiment using a Physical/Mechanical Method of oil clean-up! Determine which natural resource works the best for absorbing an oil spill!

Scientists Use MODELS to Test Their Hypotheses Photo by N. Hamm

Natural Resources: Cotton Chicken Feathers! Sawdust Peat Moss and Spanish Moss Perlite What is your HYPOTHESIS?

Rating the Different Materials We will Rate TWO QUALITIES of the different materials: Their ability to absorb oil Their ease of use

Our Rating Scale We will rate the absorbency and the ease of use of each material by this scale: 1 = Good 2 = Fair 3 = Poor

One Team’s Results Photo by A.C. Lundberg

Clean-up Procedure 1)Dump out pan into strainer in sink. Rinse out pan. 2)Wipe off utensils (fork, forceps…) and return to kit. 3)Close all materials bags and return to kit. 4)Throw away newspaper and material testing sheet. 5)Wipe off lab table.

Experimental Design Title  Which natural resource will clean-up oil best? Hypothesis  I hypothesize that the _______ will absorb oil the best.

Experimental Design Independent Variable  Type of natural resource Methods Trials (#)  # per group or # per class

Experimental Design Dependent Variable  Amount of oil absorbed  Ease of use Constants  Amount of oil, Time to absorb oil, amount of material, type of oil, boom materials…

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Acknowledgements Most images used in this lesson were obtained from the public domain courtesy of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Additional images provided by Norbert Hamm and Chris Lundberg of the Mathematics & Science Center

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