Oil-eating bacteria, also called oleophilic bacteria or oil-degrading microbes, are tiny living things that eat oil for food. These bacteria can break down different kinds of oil, like oils from plants and animals, as well as oil from gasoline and other products. When these bacteria digest oil, they get energy to grow and release carbon dioxide and water as waste.
Spark you thinking!
1. Set up your science mini spark recording page:#4: Bacteria That Eats Oil
2. Watch this video about an oil spill, and how we try to clean it up using bacteria. Take 5 notes from the video on your recording page.
3. Make a section on your recording page for each of these headings.
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
4. Read this article, How can we find oil-eating bacteria to clean up the sea? to learn more about this topic. For each of the sections, write down what you learned on your recording sheet.
5. Answer three of these questions on your recording sheet
- Why is it bad when crude oil gets into the environment?
- Why do conventional methods of cleaning up oil spills present us with a problem?
- What is a better alternative to conventional clean-up methods?
- What does a higher intensity of the red color of Nile Red say about the oil-eating ability of the bacteria in the new test?
6. Create a chatter pic to show what you learned.
Make the main character a bacteria. You can draw it or find a picture. Choose two of the questions from step 5 to anwer in your Chatter Pic
Chatter Pic STEP BY STEP!
Step 1 – Find Chatter pic in Mosyle.
Step 2 – Take a picture or get one from the gallery in your device. You can also make a drawing and take a picture of it!
Step 3 – Draw a line on the object to create a mouth.
Step 4 – Record your voice! Remember you only have 30 seconds.
Step 5 – Add stickers if necessary or desired.
Step 6 – Save your project into the camera roll.
8. Share your science mini spark recording page and your chatter pic with your teacher/EY coordinator.