Title of the project: Water conservation

Hypothesis:

Applying a layer of vegetable oil to the surface of soil helps in retaining moisture in the
soil.

Objective:
To evaluate the effectiveness of using oil to retain water in soil. The project experiment
involved corn oil, sunflower oil and canola oil.
Review of literature:
A study on consumption and conservation behavior demonstrated that pricing had a
particular effect on conservation during the annual dry season (Corral, Fisher, Hatch,
1999). Much of the literature is focused on regions that face limited water supplies.
However, water conservation goals vary among utilities, especially in areas that are not
limited in water supply. The use of certain pricing structures may be inappropriate or not
worth the administrative resources in certain situations.

Relevance:

Evaporation occurs when water changes from its liquid form into vapor. Energy is required
for the change to take place because water molecules need to break their bonds in order for
the water to turn into a gaseous state. This energy is normally acquired from heat (eg. from
the sun on a hot sunny day)or as kinetic energy from the wind. The evaporation process is
an important part of the water cycle.

Evapo-transpiration is the combination of water evaporation from the soil and

transpiration in plants. These processes lead to significant loss of moisture from the soil. If
the rate of evapo-transpiration taking place is higher than the rate of precipitation or
rainfall, then the land will become dry and arid.

Water is lost from the soil surface through evaporation. The heat from the sun provides
energy required by the water molecules to break their bonds, turn into water vapor and
evaporate from the soil surface. As the number of water molecules in the soil reduces,
capillary action will help pull more water molecules from further within the soil towards
the surface, enabling further evaporation.

Material & Method used: The

- 20 plastic cups
- 3 spray containers
- 1 bottle of corn oil
- 1 bottle of sunflower oil
- 1 bottle of canola oil
- 2000g dry soil
- 500ml tap water
- 1 digital weighing scale
- 1 pail
- 1 black marker pen

Description of Method followed:

1. the independent variable is the type of oil used – corn oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, or
none at all. The dependent variable is the amount of water that evaporates from the soil.
This is determined by using the digital weighing scale to measure the weight of the cup.
The constants (control variables) are the size of the cup, the soil-to-water mix ratio, the
room temperature and the amount of oil used.

2. The 20 cups are separated into 4 groups of five cups each. The groups are accordingly
labeled corn oil, sunflower oil, canola oil and no oil.

3. 2000 grams of dry soil is mixed with 500ml of tap water in a pail. Using the digital
weighing scale, 100grams of mixed soil is placed in each of the 20 cups.

4. Corn oil, sunflower oil and canola oil are poured into the spray containers. 5ml of oil is
sprayed onto the soil in the cups marked as corn oil, sunflower oil and canola oil, according
to the labels on the cup.
5. The weight of the cups together with the soil is measured. The total weight for the 5 cups
in each group is then divided by 5 to obtain the average weight and it is recorded in the
table given below.

6. The 20 cups are kept in a place where the temperature and humidity are constant. The
moisture from the cups is allowed to evaporate. Every day, for the next 5 days, the weight
of the 20 cups is measured. The total weight for each group is divided by 5 and the average
weight is recorded in the table given below (rounded to the nearest gram).

Observation:

It was observed that the amount of water that evaporated from the soil sprayed with the
vegetable oils was less than the amount of water that evaporated from the soil without any
oil added. There was no significant difference in the amount of water lost from the cups
containing different types of vegetable oil.

Analysis:

Condition Amount of water evaporation (grams)

Start Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
Without oil 112 106 104 101 98 96
Corn oil 116 115 113 111 109 107
Sunflower oil 116 114 112 110 108 106
Canola oil 117 116 114 112 110 108

The graph below represents the results of our science project experiment.
Result:

Our hypothesis, that applying a layer of vegetable oil to the surface of soil helps in retaining
moisture in the soil, has been proven correct.

YourOpnion:

In dry areas where the amount of rainfall is small, it is very important to retain moisture in
the soil. If the soil is left exposed and moisture is allowed to escape through evaporation,
the land will become arid, subjected to soil erosion and eventually become unsuitable for
vegetation growth. Having a layer of grass or planting more trees to provide shelter, will
help to retain the moisture within the soil.

Bibliography:

Evapotranspiration - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evapotranspiration

Summary of the water cycle - http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclesummary.html