Exercises — Lab 7: Water Pollution — Oil Spill

1. Lab 7 write-up scaffold

1. HYPOTHESIS — Predict which of your five cleanup materials will remove the most oil from the water surface. State which property of the material leads to your prediction (absorbency, selectivity, surface area).
2. METHODS — Describe your setup: container size, water volume, oil volume, how you added cocoa powder (optional, to visualize), and how you tested each material (contact time, how you measured oil removed). Include your photo documentation plan.
3. DATA TABLE — Record for each material: estimated volume of oil removed (observation), mass of material before vs. after (if using a scale), water absorbed (observation), effectiveness rating on your own scale (1–5), and photo reference.
4. ANALYSIS — Rank your five materials from most to least effective. Which material was most selective (captured oil, not water)? Connect to real oil spill cleanup: which real-world method does your most effective material most closely model?
5. CONCLUSION — (1) Was your hypothesis supported? (2) Identify two sources of error in your home-lab setup that a professional response team would control better. (3) What does this lab reveal about the environmental challenge of cleaning up oil spills in real aquatic ecosystems?