Summer SAVY 2018: Session 5, Day 3 – Chemical Spill, Miss Raff (Rising 3rd/4th)
Due to recent events (the chemical spill!!), we spent the morning learning about different types of chemical spills. Your scientists worked as research teams to clean up an oil spill. They had to purchase clean-up supplies while staying within their $1,000,000 research budget. They learned that cleaning up an oil spill is not easy: it was difficult to remove the oil from their tray without taking water with it! Then they learned about real-life examples of chemical spills and the struggles of spill clean-up. They focused on the Exxon Valdez Spill, BP Deepwater Horizon, Elk River contamination, and the Dan River coal ash spill. The scientists discussed how chemical spills affected systems in these real-life examples. If your scientist is still curious, here is a New York Times article that provides a bit more detail. Your scientist may instead enjoy watching how the oil spread in the ocean during the Deepwater Horizon spill from satellite imagery. This video was made using google earth. Your scientists learned how to use this software yesterday!
The researchers did not conduct a site visit to monitor the chemical spill today. Instead, they were in the lab. They designed and implemented an experiment to test plant responses to an acid spill. These scientists have been working diligently to learn about the effects of chemical spills and to remediate yesterday’s spill! We are excited to see if your bright scientists can make the environment healthy again.
Miss Jessica and Miss Emily
Oil Spill Fun
