How much oil is in10 000 barrels?

How much oil is still leaking

every day?

What area would this cover?

It’s in the News!Oil spill

Teacher Notes

Oil spillIntroduction:

On 20 April 2010, there was an explosion at a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil has been flowing into the sea for more than 50 days. This is now the worst oil

spill in history – surpassing the 11 million gallons that flowed from the Exxon Valdez in 1989.

This resource uses the context of the recent oil spill in the United States to pose questions for students to work on. Firstly, students are asked to consider the

size of a barrel of oil and then they are asked to think about the amount of oil that is leaking out each day and the area this amount of oil would cover on the

surface of the sea.

Content objectives:This context provides the opportunity for teachers and students to explore a number of objectives. Some that may be addressed are:• convert one metric unit to another• make sensible estimates of a range of measures in everyday situations• show understanding of situations describing them mathematically using symbols, words and diagrams• draw simple conclusions and explain reasoning.

Process objectives: These will depend on the amount of freedom you allow your class with the activity. It might be worth considering how you’re going to deliver the activity andhighlighting the processes that this will allow on the diagram below:

Activity:The activity asks students to get an understanding of the size of a barrel of oil and gives some equivalences to aid their understanding. Students are thenasked to consider how much oil is still leaking from the drilling rig and what area this might cover on the sea. This is a good opportunity to reinforce the linkbetween litres and cubic centimetres. It might also be useful to take a quantity of liquid (perhaps 0.25 litre) and pour it out onto different sized trays to see whatarea it covers at which depth..

Differentiation:You may decide to change the level of challenge for your group. To make the task easier you could consider:• scaffolding the task – breaking the analysis into manageable chunks to focus on for short lesson episodes • including a practical element (using water)

To make the task more complex you could consider:• reducing the scaffolding for the task – leaving the students to decide independently how to go about making their predictions• asking for a written justification explaining the mathematical assumptions that students have made.

This resource is designed to be adapted to your requirements.

Outcomes:You may want to consider what the outcome of the task will be and share this with students according to their ability. This task lends itself to a poster in whichstudents are encouraged to briefly justify their estimated measurements. You might also ask each group to present their findings to the rest of the class.

Working in groups:This activity lends itself to paired work and small group work and, by encouraging students to work collaboratively, it is likely that you will allow them access tomore of the key processes than if they were to work individually.You will need to think about how your class will work on this task. Will they work in pairs, threes or larger groups? If pupils are not used to working in groups inmathematics you may wish to spend some time talking about their rules and procedures to maximise the effectiveness and engagement of pupils in group work(You may wish to look at the SNS Pedagogy and practice pack Unit 10: Guidance for groupwork). You may wish to encourage the groups to delegate differentareas of responsibility to specific group members.

Assessment:You may wish to consider how you will assess the task and how you will record your assessment. This could include developing the assessment criteria withyour class. You might choose to focus on the content objectives or on the process objectives. You might decide that this activity lends itself to comment-onlymarking or to student self-assessment.

If you use the APP model of assessment then you might use this activity to help you in building a picture of your students’ understanding.Assessment criteria to focus on might be: • use their own strategies within mathematics and in applying mathematics to practical contexts (Using and Applying Mathematics level 4)• draw simple conclusions of their own and give an explanation of their reasoning (Using and Applying Mathematics level 5)• use a wider range of measures including non-standard units and standard metric units of length, capacity and mass in a range of contexts (Shape space

and measures Level 3)• choose and use appropriate units (Shape space and measures Level 4)• solve problems involving the conversion of units and make sensible estimates of a range of measures in relation to everyday situations (Shape space and

measures Level 5).

Probing questions:

You may wish to introduce some points into the discussion which might include:• what is a barrel of oil?• why is this disaster worse than the Exxon Valdez?• what is the link between a litre of liquid and a volume in cm3?• what depth would the oil be on the surface of the sea?

You will need:

The PowerPoint presentation.

It may be useful to have a two-litre drink bottle, a measuring jug, a supply of water and a large tray.

The first slide sets the scene.

The second slide gives students some equivalences to allow them to calculate how much fluid is in10 000 barrels.

The third slide describes the repairs that are happening.

The last slide gives students a further problem to work on.