Lesson Plan Title : How Much Oil Would You Need?

Age Range: Grade 9 through grade 12 (High School)

Overview and Purpose: The miracle of the lights says that there was only enough oil to burn the candles for one night; however, they burned for eight days. In this lesson, students develop an experiment to determine how much oil should have been needed to burn the candles all eight nights.

Objective: The student will be able to conduct an experiment to determine how much oil the Macabees would have needed to keep the candles burning for eight days.

Resources:

Small oil lamps

Various types of oil

Measuring cups with milliliter markings

Matches

Various other materials need for the experiments determined by the students

Activities:

Have students work together in small groups to develop an experiment that will determine how much oil the Macabees would have needed to keep all eight candles burning for eight days. Have the students develop a hypothesis, design an experiment, conduct the experiment, and report on the results.

Wrap Up:

This may be a multi-day lesson depending on the length of your class periods. However, require students to be able to complete the actual experiment during one period. They should not design an experiment that requires lamps to burn oil for several days.