Putting oil in the classroom

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Teachers (from left) Natalie Bursztyn, Beatriz Duotwal, Mike Lewis and Lewis Marquez eagerly anticipated the result of their classroom experiment.

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Exploring for oil in a delicious cupcake with a straw was the pleasurable task of teachers (from left) Tara Riess - College Heights School, Alana Kirkley - Di Giorgio School and Vicki Smith - Sierra Linda School (Camarillo).

As the old saying goes, “Sometimes you can’t see the trees for the forest.” So, for the past 13 years the Kern County Superintendent of Schools (KCSOS) partnering with the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and the American Petroleum Institute - San Joaquin Valley Chapter has been providing teachers with the opportunity to learn about one of Kern County’s major industries — oil. Every summer in July they collaborate to present a three-day seminar in Bakersfield called Derricks to Desks. This year, approximately 30 classroom teachers from Kern County and California’s southern coastal counties attended.

It is designed to give participating teachers a first-hand look at the petroleum industry with the intention to incorporate what they learn into their classroom curriculum. All that was learned did not merely originate in classroom seminars and discussions — although plenty of that took place in Bakersfield’s University Square. Teachers took part in oil industry paid for bus tours of Occidental Elk Hills Inc’s oilfield operations and an offshore oil rig in Santa Barbara County. There was also a visit to the Kern County Museum’s oil history exhibit, “Black Gold: the Oil Experience.”

Back at University Square, teacher Mike Lewis, an instructor with the KCSOS Sillect Community School, was spending his last seminar day working with colleagues from other districts on an experiment to create an understanding of the areas of oil deposition. The Lewis group spent time packing a small wood and glass box with layers of water and sand, mixed with blue-dyed diatomaceous earth. Then, by pushing on a long wooden plunger, extending into the middle of the box, they saw how the whole process works.

“These are practical applications that are designed to be hands-on projects which can be easily replicable in the classroom, and we include lesson plans for the teachers, as well,” said WSPA Administrator of External Affairs Assistant Sherlee Bailey. “We hope by interesting students with knowledge about the industry, some will pursue an education in the energy fields.”

Lewis was impressed.

“I have a lot of students who haven’t left the Bakersfield area, and by introducing this into the classroom it gives them more awareness of the world around them,” Lewis said. “As an instructor, you have to prove to the students that the subject will have interest for them. These hands-on experiments do that. It makes them inquire, and you build a lesson plan around that to show how what they have done proves a scientific point.”

At other lab stations in the University Square lecture room, experiments were going on to show the migration and trapping of natural gas and oil and a simulation of oil extraction.

“You know the oil industry is hugely important not only to Kern County but the rest of the nation and the world, too,” Bailey said. “If Kern County were a state, it would be the fourth largest oil producer in the nation. Five of the largest oilfields in the lower 48 states are located right here in Kern County.

Lewis discovered there were lots of aspects about the industry that he was unfamiliar with which would also make for great teaching points.

“Many people associate the oil industry as being just about oil and gas,” Lewis said. “But my students will be surprised to find out that petroleum products are also used in the manufacture of such things as clothing, cosmetics, tooth paste, mouth wash, even guitar strings and golf balls. I recently moved back to this area and wondered what all the visible pipes around the school and areas of the town were about. Turns out they are used in the transportation of oil and gas. Water is even pumped into the ground to extract the oil. That will interest the students.”

The last experiment of the day featured a box of frosted cupcakes and drinking straws. By plunging a straw into a cupcake and retrieving it, the teachers could see what layers of earth they had penetrated and whether they had found oil represented by a colored M&M at the bottom of the cupcake. Each time they did not hit oil, they would have to insert the straw in another area of the cupcake and try again. It turned out to be a valuable economic and nutritional experiment. The teachers were told each hole represented a $1 million exploration. At the end of the day, if they had drilled too many holes at least they had a delicious cupcake to sooth their frustration.


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