First, you must duplicate the conditions of a real oil spill. Obtain a large baking pan, at least 2 inches deep..Place sand along one side, 2 inches high, to duplicate a coastline. Fill the pan with water, 1 inch deep. Fill a measuring cup with 1/8 cup of vegetable oil. Dissolve black oil-soluble food dye in the oil. Gently pour the black oil onto the water, far away from the sand. Rock the pan gently to simulate waves moving the oil around. Photograph the box at various stages to visually demonstrate how the oil spill moves. Place little bits of white-colored fake fur on the edge of the coast line, to simulate animals and photograph the oil soaking the fur. In your report, write about how the oil moved and how it seeped into the sand little by little. By duplicating the conditions of a real oil spill, you will understand the mechanism of how a spill moves. Another attribute is wind. Blow on the oil gently, to demonstrate how wind moves a spill.
The next step is how to deal with the spill. One method is to use detergents to dissolve the oil, so it will disperse into the water. Add dish detergent to your spill, and photograph the results. Move the pan around gently, and notice that the dish detergent dissolves the oil. While this method has been proposed on real oil spills, it is not the best solution. According to Dr. Richard E. Barrans Jr., this method simply dissolves the oil into the water, but does not remove it, and it may still harm wildlife.
Duplicate an oil spill by redoing the original experiment. Fill a small cotton baby sock with clumpable cat litter and tie it off. Gently place the sock on the black oil, and notice it absorbs the oil. This is the preferred method of cleaning up a spill, since it contains the oil. After the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, British Petroleum used large socks filled with discarded human hair from barber shops to absorb the oil.
Another possible solution is to vacuum the spill. Duplicate the oil spill experiment. Using a straw, gently suck up some of the oil. Discard the oil into a cup. Little by little, the oil spill will be gone. Actor and experimenter Kevin Costner spent $26 million of his own money developing a vacuum cleaner device that takes in oil and water, and releases the water back out.
You can experiment and develop your own solutions to an oil spill. For example, you can combine techniques such as absorbing and vacuuming. You have to become a researcher and develop the most effective method of how to clean up a spill. Pay attention to the sand coastline as well, and develop methods on how to effectively remove the oil from the sand.