Tulsa World: Boom to bust: Teaching kids about energy

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Boom to bust: Teaching kids about energy
Students strike gushers of learning and fun

Mary Bender, a second-grade teacher, reads a book, "The Road to Petroville," to students at Marshall Elementary School last week. The book is part of the Oklahoma Energy Resource Board's "Little Bits" curriculum. MIKE SIMONS / Tulsa World

By ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
Published: 10/13/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 10/13/2009 10:11 AM

Black chips dotted Mary Bender's classroom like big drops of chocolate, giving circular contrast to the pale floor, the bookshelves and even the eraser holder.

Bender's eager, competitive students at Marshall Elementary School couldn't wait to get at them, collect them and count who had the most. Three, two, one — go!

"Black gold everywhere," Bender said.

Bender and another Marshall teacher, Shasta Davis, were using learning tools given to them as part of the "Little Bits" curriculum provided by the Oklahoma Energy Resource Board. They are among teachers statewide using math, science, social studies, history and even playtime to clue in students about Oklahoma's oil and gas industry.

"It's all very hands-on," Davis said. "They just really loved it."

Her classroom, which mixes first- and second-graders, performed an experiment with markers, water, coffee filters and a paper plate. The residue produced different colors, symbolic of all the things made from oil, from gasoline and motor oil to asphalt, plastic and ink, the students are told.

One of the students, Aloni Davis, picked it up pretty quickly.

Holding a plastic pen, she informed a reporter: "I'm touching oil."

Bender's Hunt for Black Chips represented the search for oil and how it has been depleted over time, as the students come up with fewer chips after each round. That inspired talks about conservation and alternative energy sources.

"If we don't teach them to look for it in the future, they'll have nothing," Bender warned.

Sometimes, however, the kids are all right with talking about the oil industry's past. Stories about boom towns, pump jacks and "worms" — entry-level roughnecks

— captivated boys and girls alike so much that they nicknamed their new affiliation "The 2009 Oil Co."

"The boomies!" Jovan Quiroz answered enthusiastically when Bender mentioned the towns formed overnight in the early, delirious rush for black gold.

"The worms were people," another second-grader, Christopher Barrera, offered helpfully to a newcomer.

"They're oil derricks. They were digging for oil in the ground," he added to hints from a book.

The OERB's latest book, "O Is for Oil," is an alphabetic romp through industry terms, providing another tool in the "Little Bits" curriculum.

"A is for the Anadarko, Ardmore and Arkoma Basins Z is for Zillions," as in the number of products derived from petroleum.

Hundreds of teachers statewide have trained in and used the curricula through the years, the OERB's spokeswoman Jennifer Billings noted. The kits — containing games, books, markers and plenty of coffee filters, among other things — cost between $200 and $750 and are funded completely by the OERB.

"We want to make sure the programs never cost the teachers anything," Billings said. "We never want it to be a burden to them to teach."

The demand is growing. More than 150 teachers attended the Fossils to Fuels workshop last month in Tulsa. Other OERB curricula extends the program into middle and high schools.

Today's first-, second- and 12th graders may be tomorrow's engineers, geologists and roughnecks. They may also lead the way into natural gas cars, solar-paneled homes and wind turbines across the prairie.

"They have so many questions," Davis said.

The OERB also is known for funding cleanup at hundreds of abandoned well sites. It began its Petro Active education program in 1996.

Rod Walton 581-8457
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com By ROD WALTON World Staff Writer

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FromTheHeart, (10/13/2009 12:44:38 PM)

Desk and Derrick also offers a book for young children called "bits of fun".

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