Students Learn First Hand About Oil Spill Cleanup

By Susan Coney

Students in Matt Brown’s sixth grade science class received hands-on experience learning about the effects of oil spills on the environment during a lab session conducted recently in their classroom at Reed Intermediate School.

Mr Brown, who also teaches math and reading, explained that the lab experiment, entitled “Oil and Water Don’t Mix,” was designed to help the students gain an understanding of the disastrous effects of oil spills on the environment.

The experiment was the culmination of a unit the students had been studying on the water cycle and pollution. “We are doing this lab to see what a pain in the neck it is to clean up after an oil spill and its effect on birds and wildlife,” Mr Brown said.

Previously the students studied the dangers associated with the transportation of oil and the perils of tapping into underground oil reserves all over the world in the sea, desert, jungle, and even the frozen arctic. The students studied such disasters as the Exxon Valdez oil tanker that hit an underwater reef in 1989, spewing 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean and damaging more than 1,200 miles of Alaskan coastline, killing thousands of plants and wildlife populations.

Prior to the lab experiment, all students researched, wrote, and shared their essays about oil spills, a major global concern.

The task presented to the students was to investigate how difficult it is to remove oil from water and feathers. The students were to observe what happens when oil is added to water, compare the mass of the feathers before and after contact with oil, and infer the effects of oil spills on birds.

The students were expected to predict, by writing a hypothesis, what type of oil they thought would be more harmful to birds — motor or vegetable — and why.

The students working in groups of four were provided with materials such as blank paper, tap water, paper towels, Petri dishes, two feathers, measuring spoons, motor oil, vegetable oil, and a triple balance beam.

Mr Brown provided the students with a step-by-step procedure to follow when conducting the experiment. He and educational assistant Ruth McCrodden came around to pour the two types of oil out in small quantities for the students to work with and offer assistance when needed.

During the lengthy lab experiment the students worked cooperatively and diligently to complete the task, taking a keen interest in what they were studying. At the conclusion of the experiment students responded in writing to several specific questions such as what they felt would happen to birds that live in or feed upon fish that live in an oil spill environment. The students were to answer if their hypothesis was correct or not and provide an explanation. The students reflected on the benefits of performing the lab.

As they worked, the students discussed with members of their small group the difference between a bird’s feather that had been exposed to any type of oil to one that had not. They also experienced the difficulty of removing oil from a feather and could see more clearly how birds might be affected by having oil on their feathers.

Sixth grader Mason Page, a pet owner of six birds, commented that it would be very hard for the birds to ever fly again once that were exposed to such a heavy amount of oil. Mason made an observation commenting, “That about the only good thing about an oil leak is that you can see and smell it when it happens.”

Jordan Hensel stated, “The motor oil doesn’t clean up too good. The feather soaked up so much oil so fast it would be really hard to clean every feather on every bird after a large oil spill.”

Melissa Procaccini commented, “The feather covered in motor oil seems deformed when compared with a dry feather.” Classmate Tom Donnelly observed, “Even with water and paper towels it’s really hard to clean oil off of one feather. If you had a real live bird it would really take a long time and would be difficult to clean.”

During the lab cleanup Mr Brown gave specific instructions for the disposal of the oily, water mixture. Strict orders were given to pour the water into an empty can for proper disposal, prohibiting the students from pouring the water mix down the school drain.

Upon completion of the lab experiment students discussed their findings. The students presently are gaining practice in writing formal, detailed lab reports on the experiment conducted into their science journals as a summary to the unit.