Materials:
o Lettuce
o Measuring cup
o Plastic bags
o Refrigerator
o Markers
o Thermometer
Goal:
o Replicate some (but not all) aspects of oil and natural gas formation.
Pre-Lab Questions:
1) What are some conditions required for there to be oil or natural gas production in the earth?
1.1) Phytoplankton dies, sinks.
1.2) Mixes with other sediment, breaks down.
1.3) Rock layers form, causes pressure, creates heat.
1.4) Between 60 and 120 degrees Celcius, oil is formed.
1.5) Cooks over two hundred million (200,000,000) years. *Capping stone also required.
2) Approximately how long does it take oil to form?
Oil forms over two hundred million years. (Wait. Is it two hundred mill? I keep getting it mixed up with twenty.)
Procedure:
1) Measure two cups of lightly crushed iceberg lettuce.
(danny began process of Cup Number One.)
2) Place one cup of lettuce in a Ziplock bag and label the bag "warm". Place the other cup of lettuce in a Ziplock bag labeled "cold".
Danny is putting lettuce in bag (on left). and i began to label (on right).
3) Distribute the lettuce along the bottom of each bag and roll the bags from the bottom to remove as much air as possible. Seal each bag.
4) Unroll and observe each bag now and each day for the next two weeks. See the "observations" lab sheet.
5) Place the bag labeled "cold" in a refrigerator.
6) Note the temperature of the refrigerator and room.
Lab Questions:
1) What conditions required for oil or natural gas to form are being reproduced in this lab? Which conditions are not?
The conditions needed are the refrigerator and something Mr. Greg and Mrs. Ogo used for making them warm - you see, I have no idea how they made it warm. They put all the warm-labeled lettuce in something and the cold-labeled lettuce into the fridge.
2) What changes did you observe?
After getting the bags back, my table and I noticed that the warm lettuce turned into a big bag of brown globby, rotting lettuce. It was very squishy and yucky looking. At first, no one at my table wanted to hold it because of its outside looks. So, it turned out that I was the one who held it and (loved it, since everyone else said measured it. Seriously, you guys do not have strong stomachs. The cold lettuce turned out to be very fresh. It looked as if we had just seen it yesterday, when we were doing the lab. The dramatic changes we saw caught us by surprise - I think everyone was shocked too.
3) What do you expect caused these changes?
I figured out that the two conditions were the ones who had caused the big changes in both bags.
4) Was there any difference between the "warm" and "cold" bag? How do you think this relates to oil and natural gas formation?
Of course there was a difference between the warm and cold bag. This relates to oil and natural gas formation in many ways. In another page, I had typed out the ways of how oil and gas were formed. Each list was different than the other. If we relate the changes we saw in these two bags to the list, we'll saw that the relation are very similar to each other.
o Lettuce
o Measuring cup
o Plastic bags
o Refrigerator
o Markers
o Thermometer
Goal:
o Replicate some (but not all) aspects of oil and natural gas formation.
Pre-Lab Questions:
1) What are some conditions required for there to be oil or natural gas production in the earth?
1.1) Phytoplankton dies, sinks.
1.2) Mixes with other sediment, breaks down.
1.3) Rock layers form, causes pressure, creates heat.
1.4) Between 60 and 120 degrees Celcius, oil is formed.
1.5) Cooks over two hundred million (200,000,000) years. *Capping stone also required.
2) Approximately how long does it take oil to form?
Oil forms over two hundred million years. (Wait. Is it two hundred mill? I keep getting it mixed up with twenty.)
Procedure:
1) Measure two cups of lightly crushed iceberg lettuce.
(danny began process of Cup Number One.)
2) Place one cup of lettuce in a Ziplock bag and label the bag "warm". Place the other cup of lettuce in a Ziplock bag labeled "cold".
Danny is putting lettuce in bag (on left). and i began to label (on right).
3) Distribute the lettuce along the bottom of each bag and roll the bags from the bottom to remove as much air as possible. Seal each bag.
4) Unroll and observe each bag now and each day for the next two weeks. See the "observations" lab sheet.
5) Place the bag labeled "cold" in a refrigerator.
6) Note the temperature of the refrigerator and room.
Lab Questions:
1) What conditions required for oil or natural gas to form are being reproduced in this lab? Which conditions are not?
The conditions needed are the refrigerator and something Mr. Greg and Mrs. Ogo used for making them warm - you see, I have no idea how they made it warm. They put all the warm-labeled lettuce in something and the cold-labeled lettuce into the fridge.
2) What changes did you observe?
After getting the bags back, my table and I noticed that the warm lettuce turned into a big bag of brown globby, rotting lettuce. It was very squishy and yucky looking. At first, no one at my table wanted to hold it because of its outside looks. So, it turned out that I was the one who held it and (loved it, since everyone else said measured it. Seriously, you guys do not have strong stomachs. The cold lettuce turned out to be very fresh. It looked as if we had just seen it yesterday, when we were doing the lab. The dramatic changes we saw caught us by surprise - I think everyone was shocked too.
3) What do you expect caused these changes?
I figured out that the two conditions were the ones who had caused the big changes in both bags.
4) Was there any difference between the "warm" and "cold" bag? How do you think this relates to oil and natural gas formation?
Of course there was a difference between the warm and cold bag. This relates to oil and natural gas formation in many ways. In another page, I had typed out the ways of how oil and gas were formed. Each list was different than the other. If we relate the changes we saw in these two bags to the list, we'll saw that the relation are very similar to each other.