Oceans in a Bottle

As a part of our thematic unit on oceans, the students created their own ocean in a bottle during science lab. They first added sand to the bottom of the bottle. They then added water to the bottle followed by vegetable oil. Before adding the oil, they made predictions about if the two liquids would mix together or stay seperate. Once they added the oil and discovered that they did not mix, they added blue food coloring. They then shook the bottles up to disperse the food coloring. Once they settled again, we discussed how the darker part of the ocean is at the bottom (the water in our model) and the lighter part (the oil) is at the top. We then talked about how the oil is actually heavier than the water but because they do not mix, it stays on the top. They then turned the bottles to the side and made waves with them. Following the lab, they completed a lab report to take note of their findings.