Oil science

Oil science 

Morah Katie: What happens when we add oil and water? What color is the oil?

Mason: Yellow.

Morah Katie: What color is the water?

Matan: Blue

Morah Katie: If we mix them, what color will we get?

Lakshmi: Orange.

Sophia: Pink

Nora: Green

Morah Katie: What happened? Did they mix?

 Kids: No.

Morah Katie: What color is on top?

Kids: The oil, the yellow.

Morah Katie: What color is on the bottom?

Kids: The blue. 

Morah Katie: The science behind it: water likes water better than oil 

AND oil is less dense, it is not as heavy as water.  The water will sink, the oil will rise to the top.

I encourage you to try and see if you can mix the water and oil to make green.

Morah Katie: Nora, did you make green?

Nora: No but some blue bubble came up to the top.

Morah Katie: Sophia, What is happening to the oil when you pour the water in? 

Sophia: Well it is mixing but it is not staying. The blue is down.

Matan: It's not mixing. The oil is on top but some blue bubbles are on top.

Mason: The yellow, the oil, didn't mix in. 

Last week we tried to create some mystery messages in oil with our water color paints.

Mason and I noticed the smallest layer of oil in the water color jar, which led us to a discovery.  

We discovered that despite our attempts to have the water and oil resist each other, our paint brush had become contaminated with oil.  Our oiled paint brush spread and diluted the oil just enough to counter the effects of the difference in density, and the fact that water molecules prefer water over oil.

Morah Katie: Oil is really special. We know it can be used to light a menorah.

 What happened to the oil long ago in the Holy Temple?

Lakshmi: It got messy and there was only 1 jar left. 

Morah Katie: When the Maccabee's realized they had just one jar, what did they do?

Nora: They needed to get more oil but they used the jar they had and it lasted for the 8 nights.

Morah Katie: Where did they get the oil from?

Matan: They had to go far.

Nora: Yeah they didn't have store to just go to.

Morah Katie: They would take a cart and travel to the olive orchards about 4 days away, and once they had more olive oil, they would travel back.

This is a picture of the ancient machine used to press the oil from the olives. Does it look easy?

Kids: NO!

Morah Katie: WE are going to try to get oil from some olives, here in class.

Each child pressed 3 olives.  

The oil and juice were collected in one cup.

 After 20 olives....

the tiniest bit of oil had been pressed! 

We are calling it a successful day.

We have been creating beautiful menorahs,
which we are excited to send home