Oil Spill Simulation

Task: You will be engineering a plan to help clean up a simulated environmental disaster- an oil spill!

Materials:

        -bucket or container of water

        -rock

        -plant

        -feather

        -oil

        -students worksheet

Activity: Gather a bucket of water (ocean, a rock with a plant on top (land) and a feather (bird).

Add a tablespoon of oil to the center of the bucket- this simulates and oil leakage.

Observe what happens for one minutes. Next, gently blow on the water for a few seconds (this simulates the wind)- observe what happens.

Using the items listed on the table, you will have 20 minutes to clean up the spill. You will be “charged” for each item you choose to use. You have a budget of $100,000.

Cleaning up an oil spill is expensive and time consuming. Keep track of all your purchases and how much money you have left over. Record how effectively each item worked.  

Standards:

S4.A.1.3.4 Explain what happens to a living organism when its food supply, access to water, shelter, or space is changed (e.g it might die, migrate, change behavior, eat something else)

S4.B.3.2.1 Describe what happens to a living things when its habitat is changed

S4.B.3.2.2 Describe and predict how changes in the environment (e.g. fire, pollution, flood, building dams) can affect systems

M04.A-T.2.1.1 Add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers