Preparing to wash oiled feather
Oil / Feather Experiment
- One large glass bowl or dish
- One small bowl
- One medium bowl
- A couple of spoons for mixing
- Vegetable oil
- Cocoa powder
- Materials for cleaning the oil, such as cotton balls, sponge, paper towel, plastic spoon, or anything else you’d like to try
- 1 teaspoon of liquid dish soap
- Feathers (can be found at a craft store)
- (Optional) latex gloves to keep hands clean
- (Optional) blue food coloring
- (Optional) disposable table cloth for messes
- Fill your large glass bowl or dish with water. Leave some room at the top, so it doesn’t overflow.
- (Optional) Add a few drops of blue food coloring to the water, and mix well.
- In your small bowl, mix vegetable oil and cocoa powder until you get a “crude oil” consistency. This will be about three parts vegetable oil and two parts cocoa powder. The mixture should still be oily.
- In your medium bowl mix warm water with one teaspoon of liquid dish soap.
- Coat a couple of feathers in vegetable oil, and a couple of feathers in the vegetable oil/cocoa powder mix. Set aside and let dry.
- Quickly pour some plain vegetable oil into the water in your large glass bowl or dish – it doesn’t need to be a large amount. What happens to the oil?
- Now slowly pour some plain vegetable oil into the water. What happens with the oil this time?
- Now that you have an oil spill in your dish, use some of the materials you have, such as a cotton ball, to clean up the spill. Which one works best?
- Pour out your oil spill water and fill the bowl/dish up again with water. This time use the oil/cocoa mixture. Poor this mixture very slowly into the dish with water. How does this oil look compared to the first “oil spill”?
- Like before, use your different materials to see which one cleans up the oil best. Which one worked best? Was it the same as with the first “oil spill”?
- Use your warm soapy water to wash your oiled feathers. Note: you will need to change out the water between feathers.
- What happens to the oil that was on the feathers?
- How did the feathers feel before and after the washing?