Physical science with OOGEEP lessons

Chris Brown, a middle school science teacher at Glandorf Elementary School, finds the OOGEEP STEM lessons a great fit with his science standards. "The lessons discuss force, a physical science standard, when dealing with pipelines and building the oil derricks," Brown said. "We cover layers of the earth so it is natural to explore what is in those layers like oil and natural gas. Also, our school is focusing on career introduction so all the career information that goes along with the lessons has been great. The geology unit lessons more directly cover my standards and it was a no-brainer to sandwich this unit right in the middle of those."

Brown used the lessons Sweet Explorations, Weighty Problems, Transporting Natural Gas and Pipeline Pigging, as well as others.

"I like that these lessons are very "real-world" and expose the students to an area that has a huge impact on their daily lives, but that they learn very little about and probably know even less about," Brown said. "I appreciate that it is a complete lesson, including teacher and student versions."

Brown had OOGEEP Education and Workforce Development Manager Shawn Toy come speak to his class. "I enjoyed the speaker," one student said. "I do think that the oil industry is very interesting and I might look into becoming something in this field in the future."

Brown's students share about their favorite activities:

• "My favorite activity was going to the maker space and creating the pig. I enjoyed that because ours looked so much different then the real ones. It was cool to see the real ones compared to ours." —Gracie
• "My favorite activities were building the pipes and the building of oil derricks because building the oil derrick was difficult but also fun. Our group didn't think it would even hold the bucket but we ended up holding most of it. The pipes were fun because it was like building a roller coaster because you had to make sure that the balls didn't get stuck and they kept moving." —Libbie
• "My favorite activity was the Twinkie drilling one because it was really fun and actually gave a good representation of how natural gas and oil are extracted from earth." —Addisyn
• "My favorite one was the pipelines. It was fun trying to make the pipes go down at a constant slope while putting turns in the pipes. It also felt good once you got the golf ball and ping pong ball to go through the whole pipeline." —Evan

These lessons are available free online on our website. Gain hands-on experience at a summer workshop—watch our events page](https://www.oogeep.org/teacher-students/teacher-workshops/)!