BayouSTEM Brings Hands-On Lessons to Middle School Science Teachers 👩🔬🧪🔬👨🔬
Oil production is an important part of Louisiana’s economy. That’s why educators with BayouSTEM have teamed up with industry officials to create lesson plans that will create greater awareness of the industry and those science concepts needed to work in it.
BayouSTEM Director Christie Landry recently held a two-day workshop with middle school science teachers in Assumption Parish Schools, teaching them how to incorporate hands-on activities in their lesson plans – activities that help to visualize important science and engineering concepts.
In particular, Landry showed teachers how to construct a miniature pump jack and hydraulic fracking operator, and provided them with kits for their students. Both projects include introductory lessons on engineering and physics concepts utilized by the working devices.
“By incorporating hands-on project into lessons, students become more engaged and more apt to understand the concepts,” Landry said.
“We also see the projects as a natural way to begin talking about the energy production industry in our state, and particularly in those components of the industry our region, giving students an introduction to some very good-paying and much-needed jobs in our state,” she said.
BayouSTEM is the LaSTEM program for Louisiana’s Region 3, which includes Assumption, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. It is partnered with Fletcher Technical Community College in Schriever, where BayouSTEM is part of an effort connect industry, the local workforce and education groups to grow awareness of career opportunities for skilled workers.
Pierre Part Middle School Science Teacher John Giambrone, who primarily teaches 7th and 8th graders, said he plans to incorporate the pump jack kit and discussion in his lessons on fluid dynamics and molecular structures.
He noted that the pump jack creates pressure known as artificial lift to pull crude oil out of the ground. Hand pumps used to lift water from a ground well utilize the same process.
The kit allows students to construct a miniature version of a pump jack, including a long beam and pulley system, that when energized will move the beam up and down, creating pressure that will eventually move the oil from the ground to a barrel for easy collection.
The fracking exercise utilizes a cup, pea gravel, tubing, water and vegetable oil, along with a few other household items, to demonstrate how horizontal pressure can move fossil fuel deposits trapped in the Earth’s subsurface.