Lab, Day 1 - May 4, 2011

Today, on May 4th, 2011, in my 6th Period Science class, we started our first day with the used cooking oil. It was one of those one time experiences when you don't get to do this project every year, and I'd say this one was worth it. The first thing that we had to do was to get the funnel, and cut a cheese cloth so that we can trap as many food particles that were in the oil. We did that by putting the cloth on the wide side of the funnel, and securely taped it with duct tape. After that, we opened up the lids of the 5 gallon buckets of pre-used oil. We used a cup to scoop it out and placed it in beakers by pouring it through the cheese cloth and funnel that we made so that the food particles would be removed. After that, we had to put the beakers of hot plates that were supposely have our oil get hot enough to reach 100 degrees Celsius. As the beakers were on the hot plates, we began to reconize small bits of food because the cheese cloth didn't catch anything. We just let them sit there. After observing the beakers for some time, we had to clean up. We took off our goggles, gloves, and aprons and washed out the funnel. The funnel still had the cheese cloth on it, so we had to take it off by taking off the tape, threw the unnessessary things away, and cleaned the funnel with a mere tab of dish soap. That was the end of Day 1, and but we still have to do about 2 more buckets by Friday!