11. A sample from the worksheet
PRACTICAL WORK
Your research task is to observe the behaviour of oil in water and experiment with various
options to liquidate oil pollution.
Experiment 1. Modelling an oil spill.
Take a clean glass jar filled with faucet water and add a drop of blue ink. Also add some salt
(about 1 tsp per a 1.5L jar) to imitate sea water. Mix and let the solution settle.
1. How does sea water differ from faucet water? Find between one and three
differences.Sea water is salt water, feculent and includes a lot of bacteria
In a cup mix thoroughly two teaspoonfuls of cooking oil and two teaspoonfuls of cocoa
powder – this yields the “mazut” you will need for the experiment. Take a spoon to help you.
Let the oil mixture or the “mazut” transfer very slowly (1) from the spoon, at the height of
about 1 cm, onto the surface of the “sea water” in the glass jar. NB! If you pour too quickly
or from too high, the experiment will fail and you need to start all over.
