Green Eggs and Oil

Today we discovered first hand what eggs floating in a water/oil mixture looked like and felt like over 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and then thirty minutes.

Materials:
4 hard boiled eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
10 drops of food coloring
clear bowl
timer


Students watched as I cracked the first egg and then I passed it around. They wrote what they saw and described how the egg felt. Then the remaining eggs were submerged into the mixture. (Today Ally was our official photographer. She did such a great job capturing this activity with the iPad Mini.)

Mixture:

Cracking first egg:

Passing around egg number two

And my personal favorite.......the photo of Kellan and egg number three

The third egg was slightly discolored and was tough to the touch. One student said it felt rubbery. It was amazing to feel the difference just after 30 minutes. We discussed what it must have felt like for the animals in the ocean over the 140 day period of the oil spill. 

Caitlin raised her hand and said, "That's almost as long as a year in school." 

Chills I tell ya! This was one happy teacher today as I watched and listened to my students making such powerful connections. What a thrill to witness their learning!

Tomorrow we discuss whether or not something like this could happen in our own back yard.