It is hard to imagine anything good coming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; even suggestions that the public and private sectors will learn and adapt to ensure that nothing like it can happen again are almost as difficult to digest as the massive amount of oil that has now entered our ecosystem. To create a learning opportunity out of this incident, the author initiated some simple experiments and presentations that eventually morphed into a three-week course for grades 4 and 5. Students explored the effects of oil spills and investigated cleanup methods. This lesson has integrated academic disciplines that include math, reading, writing, and social studies.