
Elodea Plants and Oil Spill Cleanup
Medium
Can a common aquarium plant remove oil from water? You place Elodea plants in measuring cylinders filled with water and top each one with a different oil: gasoline, engine oil, corn oil, or kerosene. A fifth cylinder with no oil serves as the control.
After seven days, you check the oil levels. The Elodea plants do not reduce the oil in any cylinder. By the fourth day, the plants begin to yellow and die. The oil layer blocks light and suffocates the plants instead of being absorbed.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that the Elodea plant will be able to remove oil from water.
Method & Materials
You will place Elodea plants in measuring cylinders filled with water and different types of oil, and observe the level of oil in the cylinders after 7 days.
You will need 5 Elodea plants, 5 measuring cylinders, a bottle of gasoline, a bottle of engine oil, a bottle of corn oil, a bottle of kerosene, and 1 liter of water.
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See what’s includedResults
The results of the experiment showed that the Elodea plants were not able to lower the level of oil in the measuring cylinders. After the 4th day, the leaves of the Elodea plants started to yellow and the plants began to die.
Why do this project?
This science project is interesting because it explores the potential of using plants to clean up oil spills, which can cause serious damage to the environment.
Also Consider
Variations of this project could include using other plants like Brassica Rapa to determine if the plant is effective in absorbing oil in water, or using microorganisms or bacteria to remove oil from the water.
Full project details
Additional information and source material for this project are available below.Related videos
These videos explain the science behind this project and demonstrate key concepts used in the experiment.
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