Students discover that plankton is real AND useful

Jana Neptune’s 8th grade science class at Cambridge Middle School did the “listen and draw a geologic timeline” lesson. In this lesson, students draw what they hear as the teacher reads about the different time periods when oil and gas were being formed. Although some of the students were put off by their ability to produce artistic masterpieces, they persevered, and Neptune noted, “They would even giggle as they were drawing because they knew their dinosaurs looked terrible!”

One interesting moment was when students realized that oil and gas came from plankton. Familiar with the character “Plankton” from the popular TV show SpongeBob, the students weren’t aware that plankton was real and that it played an important role in the development of natural resources.

Neptune appreciated the OOGEEP workshop’s opportunities to network and hear about what other teachers are doing in the classroom. She said, “I would recommend this to other teachers because the classroom materials are helpful and I also learned about the oil and gas industry while touring different facilities in the area.”