Discovering an oil well on campus

Perry High School instructor Sarah Rivera found materials from the OOGEEP teacher workshop helpful in her Environmental Science class. “I use the resource material (posters, brochures, samples of petroleum/oil) a LOT for my class. The documents about fracking, production, and where natural gas and oil are located in Ohio are very useful for the students to get a visual representation of what is going on with natural gas and oil around them. As it turns out, the students discovered we have an oil well on our campus! They were so interested in this and we took a walk to go see it.”

Rivera said her main goals are to educate the students about the natural gas and oil drilling that is going on around them, inform them about hydraulic fracturing, and also make them more aware that mostly everything they use on a daily basis is made from a petroleum product. “The students are amazed at how much depends on oil, and they asked a lot of good questions about hydraulic fracturing because of how much it is done in our area,” Rivera said.

Rivera found the OOGEEP workshop provided incredible resources and knowledge for promoting natural gas and oil education. “I think this is an area that is severely lacking in science education, and it is something that is pertinent to all grade levels and all students. I feel like after the workshop, I am more prepared to teach these concepts to my Environmental Science class, and tell other educators in my building about attending the workshop,” she said.

Rivera said she would definitely recommend this workshop to others. “It allowed us to not only network with other educators and share ideas about the topic and what we teach, but it broadened our knowledge of the topic of natural gas and oil. I really enjoyed the hands-on activities where we had to work as a team, and the field trip was great because we got to see the oil rigs in action.”