How I used these materials/6th Grade Earth Science

From OOGEEP

Submitted by G. Loutzenhiser, Medina City Schools

Consider energy education and your curriculum. How can you incorporate what you have learned into your science curriculum? Brainstorm some ideas that would include a science concept that needs to be taught, a variety of teaching methods to address retention, and the use of graphic organizers.

[edit] Benchmarks, Standards, Content or Concepts

Benchmark from the Earth and Space Sciences Standard

• Sixth Grade must define the rock cycle and the three kinds of rocks.

Benchmark from the Energy Forma and Sources, Physical Sciences Standard

• Sixth Grade must explain that the energy found in nonrenewable resources such as fossil fuels originally came from the sun and may renew slowly over millions of years.

• Sixth Grade must describe how electric energy can be produced from a variety of sources and how renewable and non renewable energy resources can be managed.

[edit] Ways to incorporate different teaching methods

I feel that the information given from the OOGEEP workshop will solidify the student’s knowledge of the types of rock that has formed in the areas where oil and natural gas are located. Using the graphic organizer, The Biotic Materials Flow Chart, will help students to understand this process. I plan to use the colored cards with words and the arrows to let the students determine the flow for this process. The section from our workshop on the formation of Natural Gas and Oil will help students to see this standard.

My school district has purchased many new materials that I feel will assist with student’s understanding. I also feel that many of the websites presented during our workshop will be of benefit for my students. I have a new projector that will show the information in another audiovisual method and that should help to impress students with the information visually and auditorially.

The experiment, It’s A Gas: Gas Formation, will be used to help students understand this standard. This is a multi-sensory activity. Using the Biotic Materials: Making Crude Oil experiment will help students realize the process of the formation of crude oil. Students can reflect or discuss the possibility of creating crude oil and natural gas now. Using the exploring for Natural Gas and Oil section of our workshop roadmap will help students understand some of the jobs of Geophysicists and geoscientists.

Information gained regarding the BP Oil Crisis will help me to better inform students about managing oil. The section from the workshop on exploring the Natural Gas and Oil will also be of benefit. The experiment on Skewer Contour Mapping will help students to realize that natural resources are not easy to locate, nor are they found in a consistent location. Understanding that drilling for oil is not a fine science helped me to better understand why the process is very time consuming. I plan to use the information that will be available to me on the OOGEEP website to show the students real-life industry. I also feel that student could have pro and con discussions after having gained information regarding the Gulf situation. I would provide students with starter questions and hope that they will expand this topic.

Much of the information gained during our field trip will be useful in explaining to the students how energy is produced from the oil and gas wells. The many pictures taken will be shown from the projector in my room. I also plan to share this information with the other two sixth grade science teachers in my building to help our students gain a similar body of knowledge on this standard. We have a second middle school in our district and I hope they, also, will welcome my new information.

I plan to contact our local representatives in the hope of having someone come in and speak with our sixth grade students. Students always benefit from a new perspective on a topic. Our school district is not allowing field trips due to monetary cuts, but the speaker and various audio-visual presentations should help students to absorb more of the facts and information. I very much hope to impress students with the safety issues regarding the oil and gas well sites. I live in an area with farms and I know students are not informed about many safety issues.

Our new computer lab should allow me the opportunity to have students research areas associated with our standards. I hope to have students create PowerPoint presentations regarding the Roadmap sections from our workshop.