4Real Forums: Current Events: Oil Spill

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Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science ( Forum Locked)
4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science

Topic: Current Events: Oil Spill

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JennGM
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Posted: May 17 2010 at 6:27pm \| IP Logged

Ds6 caught a headline in the paper about the oil spill in the Gulf, and is extremely interested in hearing progress. He mentioned at dinner how he saw another headline and photo in our diocesan paper about the spill. He wants updates and more information.

So, can we brainstorm a few books or how to talk on this subject? I was thinking some geographically themed (oceans, Gulf of Mexico, ocean ecosystem, climate), stuff about oil platforms and just digging for oil, what it is used for, and then possibly anything on how to clean up?

I don't want things that are so environmentally PC that it makes him all anti-oil. I know, tall order.

Any ideas welcome!

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Jennifer G. Miller
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guitarnan
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Posted: May 17 2010 at 6:29pm \| IP Logged

One thing you can do (we did it at a homeschool museum science day) is to simulate an oil spill (water and veg. oil in a shallow pan) and try different things to contain or absorb the "spill."

We used cotton balls, string, drinking straws, and some kind of grass or straw, I think.

It really taught the kids how hard it is to contain a spill. And it was fun!

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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.

lapazfarm
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Posted: May 17 2010 at 7:36pm \| IP Logged

Right. I was going to suggest something very similar to Nancy. Only I'd add sand and rocks on the bottom, a piece of fur or a small stuffed animal (NOT a favorite) and perhaps one of those little decorative feathered birds from the craft store, to emphasize how difficult it is to clean the various surfaces involved in a spill.
Use the cotton balls, straw, string, etc, but also various soaps and detergents, emphasizing which ones are eco-safe and which are not.
When we visited the Exxon Valdez oil spill museum exhibit (in either Seward or Homer, can't remember which)it was quite an eye opener. The extent of the devastation is mind-numbing. You know you can still dig up gobs of petroleum from underneath rocks along the shoreline in that area? And this is how long ago? Over 20 years? Scary stuff.
Here is a link to a very well-done History of Oil timeline from PBS:Oil Timeline
and here is their list of online resources with a variety of age levels and viewpoints.
It would also be a great time to discuss different theories of where oil comes from originally.Lots of neat science there.

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Mary K
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Posted: May 17 2010 at 10:38pm \| IP Logged

I just saw this on a local news station.
Rochester, NY --- A local solution to an international problem; that�s what some Western New York firms are teaming up to develop. What they now have is a substance that could play a leading role in cleaning up that massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The companies call it Sorbtech.
"It's a natural product, it's actually an absorbent," Dick Koetzle of Rochester's Tarksol Inc. said of the Sorbtech product he and other firms have developed. Video of a test performed with Sorbtech shows results that are hard to argue with.

In the video you see a jar of salt water with crude oil floating on top.

"We had it over-nighted from the Gulf,� Koetzle said of the salt water used in the test. �That is actual crude oil that is not motor oil or any other type of oil that is actual crude oil out of an oil well."

The chemical compound Sorbtech is then added into the glass jar atop the crude oil.

"That is the Sorbtech being dumped on top of it and you can see in minutes and with very little agitation it turned to a solid mass and the water was completely pure and clean," Koetzle said.

What remains is clear water and a hardened chunk of crude oil floating on the surface.

"It's biodegradable it's not hazardous to marine life," Koetzle said, while adding that cleaning it up is as easy as picking it up. "What we don't want to do is have the oil absorbed and then have it sink so we treated it with an environmentally correct product and it floats it won't sink it will absorb about ten-times it's weight in crude oil."

Koetzle added that the hardened byproduct of this Sorbtech cleanup can be converted back into crude oil and then be refined; meaning literally, there�s no waste.

It also means maybe, just maybe, a massive oil spill cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico will be made possible with the help of some Rochester ingenuity.

God bless,
Mary-NY

Becky Parker
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Posted: May 18 2010 at 6:43am \| IP Logged

Thanks for asking about this Jennifer! I know what we're doing for science today!

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