I love a good experiment

I really do enjoy a good experiment, I used to love sitting in science lessons donning the trusty white lab coat and goggles eagerly awaiting the thought of setting magnesium alight, the experiments were brilliant and a great way in learning about physics, chemistry and biology. Looking back on it letting a room of teenagers play with a Bunsen burner with only one teacher to supervise would always end with a story of some description. A particular story I remember was a young gentleman in my class decided to go one step further in his quest for further education and removed the Bunsen burner from the equation and just sucked straight onto the gas tap. Why would he do such a thing you may ask yourself - the answer of course was purely scientific! He didn't know what would happen. I imagine when sitting in the ambulance later that day he would refrain from such activities as sucking on a gas tap again, as this made him loose consciousness and isn't probably too good for your health. So from the experiment in a way he learnt a lesson.  Don't suck on a gas tap.

Imagine my excitement when I came across a great experiment from a website in Canada. 

Do you want to try cleaning up an oil spill for yourself? This experiment will help you understand why it is such a difficult task. All of the tools you will need are environmentally friendly and easy to find.

You need:

• one 28 cm x 19 cm x 4 cm clear glass baking dish (or equivalent)
• water
• blue food colouring
• 12 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 8 tbsp. pure cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. table salt
• a tablespoon
• a teaspoon
• 5 Popsicle sticks
• a coffee mug
• sorbents (paper towel, cotton balls, rag, string, nylon pot scrubber, sponge, styrofoam cup, garden peat moss, Shredded Wheat,)
• 1 squirt of liquid dishwashing detergent
• tweezers or tongs
• bird feathers (available at a pet store).

To prepare the fresh water:

1. Fill baking dish with cold tap water to within 1 cm of rim.
2. Add 5-6 drops of food dye.
3. Mix dye and water with a stirring stick.
4. Let solution settle.
5. Answer question 1 in Observations.

To simulate crude oil:

1. Place 3 tbsp. of vegetable oil in mug.
2. Add 2 tbsp. of cocoa powder.
3. Mix cocoa powder and oil thoroughly with a Popsicle stick.

To contaminate fresh water:

1. Very slowly pour simulated crude oil from a height of 1 cm onto the top of the fresh water dish. If you pour the oil too quickly, the experiment won't work - start over!
2. Answer question 2 in Observations.
3. Wait 3 minutes.
4. Do you want to change your answer to question 2 in Observations?

To test the sorbents:

1. Place a small sorbent sample into the centre top of the contaminated fresh water.
2. Answer questions 3, 4, 5 and 6 in Observations.
3. Remove sorbent with tweezers or tongs.
4. Repeat step 1 with other sorbent samples.
5. Answer questions 7, 8, 9 and 10 in Observations.
6. Clean out contaminated fresh water.
7. Prepare new simulated fresh water following instructions above.
8. Add detergent to the oil-contaminated freshwater.
9. Answer questions 11, 12 and 13 in Observations.

To determine how oil effects feathers:

1. Dip feather into oil-contaminated fresh water.
2. Answer questions 14 and 15 in Observations.

Repeat all of the above procedures substituting an ocean for the fresh water. To prepare the ocean, follow the fresh water procedures except add 1 tsp. of salt and mix it with the water before step 2. At the end of the ocean experiments, answer question 16 in Observations.

Observations:

1. How is the fresh water/ocean different from tap water?
2. What happened to the oil when you dropped it on the fresh water/ocean? Did it sink? Float? Mix in?
3. How much oil did the sorbent clean up? How quickly?
4. Does the sorbent pick up water too? If so, how can you tell?
5. Does the sorbent sink or float?
6. What is the condition of the contaminated sorbent?
7. How would you pick up the oil-contaminated material in a "real" oil spill in fresh water/the ocean?
8. How would you dispose of the oil-contaminated material in a "real" oil spill?
9. Of the sorbents you tested, which one worked the fastest? the best?
10. What other materials could you use as sorbents?
11. What happened when the detergent was added to the contaminated fresh water/ocean?
12. Where would the oil go in "real" fresh water/ocean after a dispersant (like the dishwashing detergent) is used?
13. How clean is the fresh water/ocean now that it has dishwashing liquid in it?
14. What happens when a feather gets oil on it?
15. How might an oiled feather affect a bird?
16. Are the results of the experiment different when you use fresh water instead of an ocean?

Possibly the Environment Agency should get polluters who contaminate water or land to help in the clear up, together with fines, maybe then they might learn vital lessons.