Density and Oil Spill Clean-up
From OOGEEP
Submitted by Kylie Canter, Belmont County Peace Corps
Contents |
[edit] Purpose
Students will be able to relate lessons learned about density to real life problems and situations. Students will be able to name and explain several methods of oil spill cleanup.
[edit] Materials Needed
Some small, clear bottles with sealable caps, water, and oil.
[edit] Vocabulary
Density-the mass contained in a certain volume of something, Oil Rig-a platform that serves as work and living quarters for oil extraction workers, Currents-, Skimming
[edit] Introduction
Introduce the students to myself and the Peace Corps. 5-7 min: What is PC? Why am I joining? What will I be doing? How does this pertain to hazards? What are Natural Hazards? Is the oil spill a natural hazard? Why? Why not? 5min: What is density? Mass/volume. How does density affect an oil spill?
[edit] Experiment
Explain: Here’s a bottle. Can anyone tell me what they think is in it? Okay, so it’s a layer of oil floating on top of a layer of water. Can anyone tell my why the oil is floating on top of the water? That’s right, because it’s less dense than the water.
I am going to pass out these bottles to you in pairs or groups of three. Please keep the cover on and don’t shake them. Just inspect the interface between the oil and the water. (<- 5min) (pass out bottles, 1or2 min-maybe have a volunteer do it, 2-3 min) So, what do you guys notice about the interface? Is it a gradual transition from oil to water, or is it a sharp contrast? Right, it’s a very sharp change from the water layer to the oil layer. If there was a layer of oil like this on top of a still swimming pool, how would you go about cleaning it up? (write suggestions on the board, such as skimming it off, or pushing it all to one side before scooping it out, etc) The still swimming pool would be an ideal cleanup situation. The edges are contained, the water is still, and the volume of oil to be skimmed off is relatively small. But what about the Gulf of Mexico? Is it an ideal situation? Why not? (the edges are not contained, the volume of oil was massive-(4.9 million barrels), and things like waves, currents and tropical storms stir up the surface of the water.Now I would like each group to shake, rock or swirl their bottle to simulate conditions in the Gulf of Mexico. Please write down what your group did (shake, rock, swirl, or something else), then make notes on what you observed happening between the layers. Pay particular attention to the boundary between the water and the oil. Okay, you have about five minutes to go ahead and experiment. (<- 5-7min to talk, 5 or so min to experiment with the bottles) After 5 or so minutes, get their attention. Alright, can someone tell me what their group did with the bottle? (call on someone) Okay, and what did you observe when you (did whatever you did to) the bottle? How many people (did the same thing)? (raise hands). Okay, now who did something different with their bottle? (call on someone) What did you do? And what did your group observe when you (did whatever they did)? (at any point, you can help point out things they might have missed, such as fingers of oil reaching down into the water when the bottle is rocked, or the bubbly-looking boundary between the layers after rocking is ceased. Or how pockets of oil seem to be stuck down in the water layer when the bottle is shaken, etc) See if anyone did anything different, and repeat asking them what it looks like until every method of disturbing the bottles is covered. (5-7min)Alright, now can anyone tell me what these observations might mean in the Gulf of Mexico? (let them come up with a couple of possibilities) Scientists have discovered that there are “bubbles” of oil that have become trapped beneath the surface of the water, even as deep as right near the bottom. These are very large pockets of oil, many of which are the size of minivans, and while some were created by natural oil leaks in the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, some have been proven to be consistent with the oil that was leaked by the Deepwater Horizon rig. Why do you think there is some oil which seems to sink below the surface of the ocean if vegetable oil floats on tap water? Seawater is denser than tap water because it has salt and other things dissolved in it, so it would make sense if the oil was even more likely to float in the ocean. However, Crude oil is much denser than vegetable oil, and also contains all sorts of impurities like solids and globs of tar. The more tar-like parts of the oil are actually very close to the same density, and at times more dense, than seawater, and therefore it partially or completely sinks. (5min) Collect the bottles of oil or have a volunteer collect them (1-2min). (here, if you have extra time, you could add in some basic math dealing with density of tap water vs. cooking oil as compared to seawater vs. crude oil)[edit] Conclusion/Assessment
Revisit density of water vs. oil and how it affects the Gulf spill. Have them share what they learned. (3-5 min.) Answer questions related to the Gulf Spill and density in general (5-10 min.)
[edit] Resources
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/14/g68/trythisoil.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/oilspill/ http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/10/20/gulf-oil-spill-six-months-later.html http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0606/Gulf-oil-spill-breakthrough-Cap-collecting-majority-of-oil http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/05/gulf-oil-spill-cap-placed_n_601691.html
http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9034436&contentId=7063870