As the newest resident on a deserted island, you have been tasked by the business leader, Tom Nook, and the residents of the island to begin recycling. This is a daunting task as Mr. Nook has only already ground up all of the recycled materials and loaded the pile into a single truck. As a student of science, you know that materials need to be separated before they can be properly recycled, so you must separate the four materials into individual piles. Since Mr. Nook already ground them up, you cannot do this by hand. If you complete this task, you will receive 10,000 Bells.

Fortunately, Mr. Nook knows what the materials in the truck are, as well as their densities:

Material

Density (g/cm3)

Wood

0.75

Plastic Cups

0.92

Shells

1.2

Iron Nuggets

7.87

On your island, you have the following materials at your disposal:

A long conveyor belt
Several powerful magnets hanging above the conveyor belt
A large tank that can be filled with water, density 1.0 g/cm3
Another large tank labeled “Mineral oil, density = 0.87 g/cm3”
Several nets for skimming the tanks and scooping material from the bottoms

Before you get started, you need to make a pitch to Mr. Nook explaining in detail (step by step) how you can separate the mixture, using the materials you have available. You may choose to write a letter, make a slide presentation, a visual poster, or a video recording.

In order to receive full credit:

You must describe what material(s) will be separated in each step.
You must explain WHY each material will separate in the appropriate step (hint Identify unique physical properties)
Your plan has to WORK!