ConocoPhillips launches energy workshops for students in 25 cities
BY ROD WALTON World Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
9/22/10 at 7:51 AM
ConocoPhillips launched its annual fall energy workshop series Tuesday by announcing past or upcoming workshops with school districts in 25 cities.
The Houston-based oil and gas supermajor will have conducted 26 workshops, including one planned in Ponca City, by the program's end. The north-central Oklahoma city is home to 750 ConocoPhillips refinery jobs and other support employees.
The company works with primary and secondary teachers in partnership with the nonprofit National Energy Education Development Project. The workshops focus on helping those educators improve energy curriculum and discussion in the classroom.
An estimated 1,250 educators nationwide will participate in the workshops, 11 of which were completed last spring. Each teacher receives curriculum and materials for hands-on experiments on topics including heat, light, motors, batteries and magnets.
Other cities playing host to fall energy workshops include Houston and Borger, Texas; Cheyenne, Wyo.; and Ferndale, Wash., among others. The partners estimated that 200,000 students have been taught in three years.
ConocoPhillips' connection to Ponca City dates back long before Bartlesville-based Phillips Petroleum Co.'s merger with Conoco Inc. in 2002. The company plans to keep employment intact at the Ponca City refinery but is phasing out the 700 nonrefinery jobs in the city by next year as part of a massive downsizing effort.
The nation's third-largest integrated oil and gas producer employs nearly 30,000 people around the world, including close to 3,000 in Bartlesville.
Original Print Headline: Workshops put focus on energy
Rod Walton 581-8457
rod.walton@tulsaworld.com
