Penguin science experiments: oil & water and filtering

On Monday, we learned some super cool facts about Penguins. Penguins have many layers of soft feathers that trap heat to keep them warm. The top layer is oily to help keep the water out, so we did an experiment with oil and water to show that water and oil don't mix. They asked if different colored water would change it and so we put food coloring in to see if that changed our results. We also put a bean in water and a bean in oil and water to be able to feel the difference of the oil protection.  We also soaked a bean covered in oil and without and felt the difference and how the oil protects the shell of the bean, much like a penguins body. 

We also learned that penguins have a really cool filter in their mouth where they can drink the ocean/salt water and filter out to the salt to have fresh, clean drinking water! I tried to explain it like a coffee maker, and so we got filters and sand and filtered the water through the sand to help visualize what the penguins mouth can do!!!