In this activity, students will use the real-life example of oil spills to experientially learn about the properties of fluids. Curriculum expectations are always based on the Ontario Ministry of
Expectations. Many of the activities will reinforce, rather than teach,
those expectations. As such, no assessment ideas or rubrics are
included.
Understanding Matter and Energy: Fluids
Overall Expectations:
- analyze how the properties of fluids are used in various technologies, and assess the impact of these technologies on society and the environment;
- investigate the properties of fluids;
- demonstrate an understanding of the properties and uses of fluids.
Vocabulary: oil, oil glands, specific gravity/relative density, surface tension.
Materials:
- dish washing pans or larger container like a kiddie pool
- water
- feathers (from a pillow or duster)
- tufts of fur (from brushing a cat or dog)
- human hair (from a haircut) tied together to form 'brushes' **
- cooking oil
- travailing soap dishes
- connected pencils (wrap wire around one and the next)
- balance
- detergent
- cotton balls or paper towels.
 |
| reuters.com 'Oil Spill Near Mauritius' |
Activities: Students work in groups of four, each with a dishwashing pan or larger container filled one-third full of warm water.
- Calculate and record the specific gravity/relative density of the cooking oil you will use in your experiment.
- Place feathers or fur gently on the water's surface. These are your experimental "animals".
- Measure how much cooking oil it takes to half-fill a soap container, the oil tanker in this experiment. Record the volume and place the lid on the dish. Your oil tanker is now ready.
- Place the soap case "oil tanker" on the surface of water and give it a gentle push across the water. If it has not already begun to leak its oil, gently push down one corner to speed up the process.
- Record the time it takes the oil to spread around the surface of the container.
- Watch what happens to your animals.
- Contain the oil spill with floating, connected pencils, and the oil may be "picked up" with small strips of paper towels, cotton wads or human hair **. How much oil can you recover this way?
- Clean up the animals using a detergent and by drying them with paper towels and sitting them in the sun. Do they still float after this treatment?
- Write a report describing the results of your experiment. What is "surface tension" and how is it relevant to this experiment? How does specific gravity relate to your experiment?
- Add some food coloring to the oil and measure the speed at which the oil moves across the water's surface.
- What happens if you make small waves in the experimental tank? Does the oil spread more rapidly? Do your animals become waterlogged (lose their buoyancy) more quickly?
*lesson from http://resources.yesican-science.ca/
** https://www.npr.org/2020/07/16/892034420/scientists-discover-a-new-material-for-cleaning-up-oil-spills
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