Hands-On Workshops

To bring the message of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE to a youth audience, the X PRIZE Foundation partnered with the Girl Scouts of America’s Greater Los Angeles Council to conduct a series of regional workshops in the summer of 2011. Girl Scouts learned about the effects of oil spills on the environment and conducted their own oil cleanup maneuvers by testing the effectiveness of various methods of removing oil from water. Utilizing cotton, sponges and Styrofoam to try to remove oil from containers of water, they quickly came to the conclusion that while some materials are more effective than others in tackling the problem, cleaning up an oil spill is no easy challenge.

Hands-on workshops held at Girl Scout camp facilities
Testing oil cleanup capabilities of sponges
Testing oil cleanup capabilities of cotton
Testing oil cleanup capabilities of Styrofoam