Teachers learn about energy at SPE workshop in Florence, Italy

Author: Heather Stanford; Published: Sep 28, 2010; Category: Classroom materials, Classroom presentations, Education outreach, Energy, Energy Education, Science, SPE members, Technology, Uncategorized, Volunteering; Tags: Children, Classroom Instruction, Education, Energy, Energy4me, Lesson Plans, natural gas, oil, Petroleum, School, science, SPE, Teacher, Technology; Comments: Be the first

The Society of Petroleum Engineers brought 50 Tuscany-area science teachers to its 2010 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Florence, Italy, on 22 September to learn about energy topics.

The “Energize Your Classroom” teacher workshop presented by SPE’s Energy4me energy education program, partnering with the National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci. ExxonMobil was the sponsor of the event, enabling the teachers for pre-university students age 10-18 to attend the workshop and receive the Italian materials at no cost.

The all-day workshop began with a keynote speaker, Giambattista De Ghetto, senior vice president for Research and Technological Innovation of Eni E&P, based in Milan. His talk provided an overview of “Energy’s Grand Challenges” with a special focus on the Italian petroleum industry.

After the keynote address, four instructors from the museum conducted the workshop, teaching them hands-on activities to use with their students in the classroom. Working in small groups, the teachers performed exercises and experiments that explored the characteristics of oil as a fluid and related science to everyday life. The museum instructors were Enrico Miotto, Fabrizio Stavola, Michela Maddalena, and Janos Cont.

The teachers also toured the exhibition area of the conference, with industry professionals from SPE’s Italian Section and the museum staff explaining the high-tech tools used by the oil and gas industry to find and produce energy resources around the world.

“The teachers told us they appreciated the opportunity to attend and that they very much valued this initiative,” said Alberto Di Lullo of Eni E&P, program chair for the SPE Italian Section who helped organize the event.

The teachers received the English version of Energy4me’s “Oil and Natural Gas” book and a CD with Italian lesson plans, classroom activities, hands-on experiments, ready-to-go classroom presentations, teaching aids, and speaker resources that all correspond with the book. The Oil and Natural Gas book addresses topics including the formation of natural gas and oil, finding and retrieving petroleum, products from petroleum, and oil and the environment.

Energy4me donates the “Oil and Natural Gas” book to teachers attending our teacher workshops around the globe. Energy4me’s educational materials are also available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.