Ocean life and Oil Spills SCIENCE FAIR
MIC H EL L E E N TE B I , SA L O A SHK ENA ZI, ST EPHA NIE ENT EBI
Ocean Life And Oil Spills
Why does it help the environment? By doing this project we will learn which Objective: Our objective on doing this experiment is to demonstrate the effect that oil spill will have on marine life and which oil affects
type of oils cause a worst impact on the marine life and we will try to make people understand that they have to stop throwing their trash to the ocean.
the most.
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BACKGROUND RESEARCH Oil destroys the insulating ability of fur-bearing mammals, such as sea otters, and the water-repelling abilities of a bird's feathers, thus exposing these creatures to the harsh elements. Without the ability to repel water and insulate from the cold water, birds and mammals will die from hypothermia. When birds try to clean themselves with the water of the ocean or lakes, it poisons them and it kills them because of the amount of oil it has. Fish and shellfish may not be exposed immediately, but can come into contact with oil if it is in the water column. When exposed to oil, adult fish may experience reduced growth, enlarged livers, changes in heart and respiration rates, fin erosion, and reproduction impairment. Oil also has effects on eggs and larval survival.
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Research Questions: What oil affects the most? How long does it take for the oil to contaminate the animals? Why does oil affect the water? What animals get affected the most? How long does it take to clean a feather? Is it completely clean? Do the oil spread all around the ocean? Give examples of the largest disasters of oil in history.
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Materials: • Large glass or plastic jar (a large, washed out pickle jar will work well) • 1 gallon distilled water • Blue food coloring • Cooking oil • Logbook or notebook • types of oils • Plants, sponge, or any material to test it.
Procedure: 1. - Wash the jar and dry thoroughly. Fill the jar ½ full with distilled water and add food coloring, stirring to disperse the color. This will simulate your ocean. 2. - Place the bath toys in the water so they float. 3. -Pour the cooking oil into the jar, avoiding pouring directly on the bath toys. If your jar is not big enough, you can use the rubber duck or only one bath toy if you’d like. 4. -Record your observations at this point. 5. - Gently swirl the water around in the jar to simulate waves. Record your observations
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HYPOTHESIS: If we do the project as the procedure says then we think that the animals that will end more affected by the oil spills are the fish because they are really small and are affected more quickly and the oil that will be the one that will kill them the most will probably be gasoline because it blocks the oxygen supply to the fish and even though our project consists of rubber animals we believe it will drown them and kill them.
Journal of our experiment: October 17, 2013 we decided what experiment we wanted to do on the Science Fair. October 18, 2013 we started inquiring about what types of oils affect the ocean and how hard it is to take it off the marine animals. October 20, 2013 we started to write our research questions and the materials we needed. October 30,2013 we create our procedure, at first our idea was to put in the fish tank real fish but at the end we change the experiment because we didn't want to kill real fish, so we change all of our procedure. November 26, 2013 We brought our materials and start the experiment. We put in a fish tank water with oil and put plants, we wanted to see what happened to the plants. we also put plants in normal water and see the different results. November 28, 2013 we notice that its very hard to take the oil out of the plants, after we notice this we make our result chart.
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With water only
Plants with oil
RESULTS In our results it was obvious that the plants with water are much healthier and colorful than the plants with oil. We came to the conclusion that the oil is very hard to take off because of the texture and if thats what the oil makes to the plant imagine what it would do to the marine animals. CONCLUSION Our conclusion is that oil spill in the ocean affects marine life a lot. People think that because the ocean is to big the things that they throw dont affect the animals, with this experiments we prove that even we think that it dosent affect it does. When we finish the experiment we notice that even though you try to clean the plant, its very difficult to take out the oil. 6