education

We are pleased to offer the following educational links. Through conducting experiments and research on your own or in the classroom you will better be able to understand the challenges we are facing as a direct result of the Gulf Oil Disaster. Check back frequently - this page will be routinely updated with new resources. Donations greatly appreciated.

OIL SPILL EXPERIMENTS

Math & Oil Spills

Calculating the volume of oil in a spill is a daunting and potentially confusing task. This link will help you to better understand the various figures reported in the media. Additional oil spill information is available on this site.

Environmental Oil Retrieval

An environmental method of retrieval is demonstrated in this experiment. What are the challenges of using this method?

Cleaning Up the Spill 1

How do you clean up an oil spill? Additionally, try coating a feather, sand, and a few household/classroom items in oil - what products work best to remove the oil? Try using real mayonaise to remove the oil - this is what they've used on the sea turtles! Why does mayo work?

Cleaning Up the Spill 2

Here is a bit more advanced oil spill clean up experiment. It also includes a You Tube video of the experiment.

Cleaning Oiled Feathers

NOAA has a non-hazardous experiement to simulate the challenges faced by wildlife rescuers in cleaning birds and other animals covered in oil. Additional oil spill resources are available on this site.

OTHER EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Oil Spill Solutions

TryEngineering.org lesson plan (grades 3-12) explores how environmental engineers might approach solving the problem of an oil spill. Packed with resources and standards addressed.

Cleaning Up After Oil Spills

National Geographics Lesson Plan. (grades 3-5) Students explore the causes and effects of oil spills and contamination. Special focus on wildlife. This site has multiple resources and links.

BP Gulf Oil Spill Lesson Plan

Ecology, Life Science and Environmental Studies Lesson Plan.

Education

Gulf Aide Project