Today students were a part of an oil spill clean-up crew. They were divided into groups of four or five. Each group got a plastic cup filled a few inches with water, a small cup with a few tablespoons of cooking oil, and a set of habitat and cleaning items. The students put their habitat items in the cup. Then they poured the oil into the cup. This led to a discussion about how each of the objects interacted with the oil. Few key points that came out were that it is hard to separate oil and water, so clean up processes can take a long time and a lot of effort. Oil sticks to feathers and is hard to remove, which implies that birds are affected during oil spills. In fact, oil can hamper a bird’s ability to stay warm. When oil coats feathers, the feathers are no longer waterproof. The birds thus get wet and cold, which can lead to death.
It was an eye opener to know for us to know environmental consequences associated with fossil fuel usage.
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