Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Please check out my abstract to see if it follows the criteria:
Abstract
Do you know that some rocks are like a sponge? Rocks are not soft like a sponge, but they do have many pores or spaces that can hold or soak up oil. The purpose of my experiment is to find out which sedimentary rock can store oil best. I choose this project because I am a rock collector, and I am interested in how geologists try to find petroleum oil in rocks. Three samples of each sedimentary rock (limestone, sandstone, and shale) were tested using three drops of oil on each rock sample during three separate trials. These rock samples were observed for permeability to oil (dependent variable) and how quickly the oil was absorbed after 0 minutes, 30 minutes, and 1 hour time intervals (independent variable). Oil can’t slip through a rock if the rock is impermeable or it doesn’t have pores at all. If the rock is permeable, then oil can pass through because the rock has pores. My hypothesis was that the sandstone rock would absorb oil best. The experimental results did not support my hypothesis. The experiment showed the limestone rock, which was made of shells, was very porous to the oil and let the oil pass through. The limestone was the rock that stored oil the best.

Hi,

Yes, this is an excellent abstract and a very interesting project. You have stated the purpose of your project and summarized your results. Anyone reading your project would know what you had tried to accomplish and could next refer to the board for more details. I believe that your independent variable was the type of rock that you used and the dependent variable was the amount of oil absorbed by each type of rock. Also, you might want to clarify your conclusion for the benefit of the reader. If you measured absorption of oil in each type of rock, and did not measure the porosity, in the last sentence your should state that you found the limestone absorbed more oil and say that porosity could be a factor. You should not state that the limestone was more porous based on your results, unless you had data or other documentation about the porosity of the samples.

Donna Hardy