Exploring oil spills
Cheryl Greengrove, Elizabeth Malcolm, Kevin Theissen
U of Washington-Tacoma, Virginia Wesleyan College, University of St. Thomas
Summary
This activity combines a hands-on demonstration and a follow-up homework assignment designed for students to investigate oil spill clean-up.
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Context
Audience
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
- Basic web browsing; surf and sort on the web
- Map reading; spatial interpretation
- Synthesis
How the activity is situated in the course
This is a stand-alone exercise
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Content: oil spills, impact on marine animals, spill mitigation and environmental clean-up.
Concepts: environmental problem solving, model observation, analysis, and designs
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
- Analysis of data, formulation of hypotheses
Other skills goals for this activity
- Writing
- Searching the web
Description of the activity/assignment
In this activity, students first take part in an in-class hands-on activity on the impact of an oil spill and the remediation process. Students must first figure out how to clean up a modeled spill. Students then are given a homework assignment where they use web resources on large global oil spills and they must come up with a statement of the potential impact in different ocean environments.(wetland/estuary, rocky, high-energy, open ocean).
Determining whether students have met the goals
Written paper is graded based on depth of investigation.
Teaching materials and tips
Other Materials
Supporting references/URLs
Exxon Valdez spill and remediation: http://www.evostc.state.ak.us
EPA website on spills: https://www.epa.gov/oil-spills-prevention-and-preparedness-regulations
International Tanker Owners Pollution Federal Limited:
http://www.itopf.org