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Cleaning Up Oil Spills with Elodea

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Cleaning Up Oil Spills with Elodea | Science Fair Projects | STEM Projects
Oil spills can cause serious damage to the environment, but can Elodea plants help clean them up? In this project, you'll find out if Elodea plants can absorb oil from water.

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.

Results

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

You can find additional information and details for this science fair project here. Have fun exploring!

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