SCIENCE INQUIRY LESSON

Sebastian Gerstner
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Activity Name or Title: Squeaky Clean

Purpose of Activity:
By the end of the lesson, students will understand why certain liquids won't mix and why oil floats on top of
water. Students will learn how difficult it is to remove oil from water. They will also examine how oil and water
react together and how oil spills could negatively impact natural resources and wild life.
Misconception: Students will learn how difficult cleaning oil spills can be and will discover that despite what they
previously may have thought, not all liquids mix. Some students may not understand the impact of oil spills on the
environment and our well being. This unit will look at enlightening students to the complexity of solving oil
spills.
Lesson Inquiry Question:
How do scientists compare various methods of removing oil from water after an oil spill? What are the most
effective ways of removing oil from water?

Target Learning Group [Age(s) or Grade Level(s)]:

This activity is appropriate for students in Fourth Grade.

Approximate Time Involved:

Teacher prep: 30 minutes. It will take time to distribute containers of water to the students and proper portions of
oil to each group of scientists. It may also be necessary to go over ways to keep the room clean and distribute
towels to place under the oil.
Student Involvement: This activity should take students one class period to accomplish or approximately 45
minutes.

Science Content Background Information for Teacher with Reference(s):

Oil spills that occur near to land have damaging impacts on the environment. It would only require three gallons
of oil to cover an acre of land. Oil is slick and greasy making it difficult to clean up. Oil spills like the Gulf oil spill
that occurred in 2010 released an estimated 200,000 gallons of oil into the ocean. Beyond oil spills though, oil still
can get into the ocean from run off from cars when it rains and through other natural causes.
Water molecules have a polarity that attract other atoms. H20 combine in a way that cause the oxygen to be - and
the hydrogen +. This causes water molecules to be attracted to each other. However, oil molecules are non-polar. The
molecules are balanced and therefore do not attract to water's molecules. Therefore, no matter how much you stir
water and oil, they will never mix. Oil molecules contain carbon and hydrogen and they don't stick together. This
causes oil to be thick and heavy but the molecules stay far apart. This causes oil to be less dense which is why it floats
on water.
In order for oil to be pulled from water, absorbent materials must be placed in water to soak up the oil laying on
top. The materials also have to be lightweight in order for them not to sink into the water past the oil. The difficulty in
these "booms" (as they are called) is that they have to be controlled in a way so they go where the oil is. The
complexity of trying to trap oil so it can soak into booms is the challenge we face when trying to clean oil spills.
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NGSS Performace Expectation Involved:

4-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from natural
resources and their uses affect the environment.
Science and Engineering Practices: Plan and conduct an investigation to describe and classify different kinds of
materials by their observable properties
Disciplinary Core Ideas: We use many natural resources in the world that we rely on. Events like oil spills have
negative effects on the environment and our natural resources.

ESS3.A: Natural Resources: Energy and fuels that humans use are derived from natural sources, and their use affects

the environment in multiple ways. Some resources are renewable over time, and others are not.

Crosscutting Concepts: Most scientists and engineers work in teams. (4-PS3-4)

Science affects everyday life. (4-PS3-4)

Materials and Advance Preparation:

Containers for water (clear plastic container big enough to see how oil lays on top)
Cooking Oil
Booms (cotton balls, laundry lint, paper towel strips, makeup remove pads, sponges)
Science Notebooks
Food Coloring (in case students want to color the water for their question)

Lesson References:

Science Buddies Staff. (2015, January 22). Goo-Be-Gone: Cleaning Up Oil Spills. Retrieved February 4, 2016
from http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/EnvEng_p025.shtml
http://web.archive.org/web/20090531113119/http://collaboratory.nunet.net/timber/scifair/sixthb/3.htm#bib
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/a/oil-spill-cleanup-science-projects

9. Safety Considerations:
Make sure students understand how hard it is to clean oil and to avoid it getting on papers, projects, clothes, or
desks. The students may want to wear gloves to keep the oil off of their skin.
SCIENCE ACTIVITY
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Pre-assessment Specific method for assessing students prior knowledge and/or skills relative to the science
lesson targeted:
ENGAGE
1) Engage students by showing different liquids mixing and end with mixing oil into water but without letting
them know that it is oil.
2) Ask them what they think might be happening and if they might know what the substance could be?
3) In their notebooks, students will compile their thoughts, questions, and ideas. The teacher will walk around the
classroom and ask further questions such as, What else can you say to explore that idea? "What might you have to
know to find that out?" to deepen their thinking.
4) Once groups have compiled their thoughts, they will share the thoughts they like the best to be written on a
poster in front of the class. They should also be thinking about why liquids might separate and not mix.
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Procedures (step-by-step):
EXPLORE
Begin by reminding the students about the Natural Resources they have been studying. Ask them the
importance of water and how we use it in our everyday lives. Also include marine life and how many animals
and creatures rely on clean water for their habitat and survival.
Now pass out the containers of water and oil and have them see if they can mix the water and the oil. Have
them log any observations they make in their science notebook.
Ask them now how they think they might remove the oil from the water? Allow them time to discuss in groups
and come up with ideas. Have students record their ideas in the science notebooks. All ideas are acceptable.
You will want to place this chart at the end of the lesson, after they have done their investigation. They should
have adequate data to use as evidence.
EXPLAIN
Ask the students if they know of any ways that water is negatively affected. Are there things that can happen
that negatively affect the ocean? Lead them to the idea of oil spills and if they have heard of any oil spills
occurring.

Show them a video of an oil spill so they can see they real life impact oil spills can have on our water
resources and animal lives.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uax5FRWnvs
The experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwmMwCgVB0s
Start the discussion about the oil not mixing with water and what that would mean out in the ocean. Have them
think about wildlife and how we use the ocean as well. Have the students write down, in their groups, all the
ways oil can affect the environment.
Talk about what scientists use to try and clean oil spills. Have students write down the methods used in the
video.
EXPAND
1) With the students, come up with an investigation to examine how specific substances can be used to clean oil
spills. Write the question on the board: Can we remove oil from water? Have the students contemplate whether
they think using absorbent materials will work in removing oil from the top of water. Have students think of
substances we know absorb liquids.
2) How effective do they think it will be? If the students think they can remove oil from water, do they think it
will be easy or hard? Do they think some substances will work better than others? Any of these questions can be
used in the classroom environment
3) Allow students to come up with their investigation. Give them access to the different materials they can use to
absorb the oil. This would include cotton balls, laundry lint, paper towel strips, makeup remove pads, and
sponges. Students may need a second concoction of water and oil if they want to test if certain substances work
better than others.
4) Create a procedure and go over it with the groups in the classroom. Have them write down their steps and what
observations they will be looking for.
5) Students will be looking at the effectiveness of certain objects being used in absorbing oil off of water. Have
them observe how many pieces of a substance they use, the effectiveness of absorbing the oil (measured by
weight)
6) Have the students record the data of how much of their particular absorbing substance was necessary for the
amount of oil in their experiment. That way the students have specific numbers that show how effective the
cleanup was. They can measure number of cotton balls used, change of weight in the absorbing materials, how
much oil in the container pre and post cleanup, etc. They should make these observations and keep them logged in
their science notebook.
7) Have students record any difficulties they may have had during this experiment. This could lead to a follow up
experiment if students recognize that it was difficult to keep the oil contained. Then the students could think of
ways they would manage to overcome that obstacle.
Question:
Howdoweclean
oilspills?

Claim:

Evidence:

Reasoning(What

sciencedidweuseto
answerthequestion?
Grade5andup.)

Conclusion

The students, after completing their observations, will fill out the above chart stating their claim on what they
believe to be the most effective solution to oil spills. Once their group has had time to share and discuss, the
whole class will come together to share.
Real-World Connections: Have students think of other ways they think oil spills could be cleaned. Have them do
some research and see if there are any other techniques people have tried to use to remove oil from the oceans.
Allow the students to stretch their imagination in thinking of creative creations that could be created to remove oil
having the knowledge we have gained from this experiment.
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Post-assessment (Evaluate) Specific method for assessing students knowledge and/or skills relative to the
science practices and disciplinary core ideas targeted:
Students will compile their data and discoveries they had during the experiment. Encourage students to draw
images of their findings and the experiment they conducted.

Allow students to come up with other questions they may have and other possible experiments they would
like to explore.
Have students write a short answer on how oil and water interact and whether it makes it easier or harder to
clean up out in the ocean.