Core sampling in the classroom

After attending the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program's teacher workshop, Margaret Kuck took her sixth graders at Marion Local Elementary School through lessons on exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas. In the Ohio content standards for science, students study the specific physical properties of rocks, minerals, and soils and how these properties determine their use. The conservation and extraction of these resources is also studied. Ohio’s geologic history and past environmental conditions play a role in understanding the existing bedrock and what formations are present in various areas around Ohio.

Baking Rocks
Students in groups of three placed three different rocks in water after measuring the mass of the rocks using a triple beam and a digital scale. Kuck said, "We talked about precision and accuracy in measurement, that these values should be the same or very close." The rocks sat in water overnight, and students measured them again and calculated the percent increase (if any) for each rock. Students then compared the amount of liquid each rock could hold. Kuck also had students compare the characteristics of the different rocks and analyze patterns in the rocks from each group in the class. Kuck said, "The students were engaged in determining what types of rocks held the water. This also helped them understand that the environmental conditions during the rocks’ formation led to characteristics in the rocks and therefore determined the various uses for rocks and minerals."

Sound Boards
The great mystery of where are mines drilled and why are they drilled in certain locations was clarified by the Sound Board activity. Students first read a small passage about how geoscientists use soundwaves to analyze underground rock formations. Then they were given a chance to gather data on a rock formation site of their own, the wooden sound boards. After mapping the data for their site on graph paper, they communicated their findings to the rest of the class and had to determine where to place their core samples in the model drilling site. Students were excited to use a clear straw to collect a core sample from the site, a large salt dough rock formation, with colored dough rock formations that matched the locations of oil in their soundboards. “I got some!” was a frequent comment of excited students when removing a core sample with colored dough. Students then shared the results of their core sample and collaboratively mapped the “rock” formation.

"The OOGEEP conference was very informative," Kuck said. "The workshop lessons engaged my students, and it was easy to integrate them into and use them to enhance my existing lessons on geologic resources. I plan on adding to and building cross-curricular components into these lessons in future years."