Geese

We did another experiment today to show how geese and ducks stay dry while swimming in the water all day. We learned about Canadian Geese using the National Geographic kids website. We learned that geese have special oils in their feathers that make them waterproof. To show the students how this works, we used newspaper to represent the feathers, cooking oil to represent the oils, and water to do an experiment. We used a dropper and put water on the paper an saw that it soaked in. Then we put oil on the newspaper and noticed that while it made the paper wet it also stayed on top of the paper. Then we used a dropper to put water on the oil. The students saw that the water stayed on top of the oil in drops and did not soak into the paper. I explained that this is what happens on the goose's feathers. We picked up the paper and watched the water run off.