First Annual “New Faces of Engineering College Edition” Winners!

Author: Guest Author; Published: Dec 6, 2011; Category: Education outreach, Energy Education, Engineering Careers, SPE members, Technology, Volunteering; Tags: Careers, Education, Engineering, Engineering Careers, School, SPE, Student, Technology, Volunteer; Comments: Comments Off

The National Engineers Week Foundation and partners honor top college engineering students by recognizing the most promising engineering professionals of tomorrow with their first annual New Faces of Engineering College Edition program.

Fifteen engineering students in their third, fourth, or fifth year were selected. Winners are recognized for academic excellence, leadership within student organizations, outstanding communication skills, non-engineering related community service and involvement in the engineering industry.

Moustafa Ezzat, a 5th year student from the British University in Egypt and student member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), was among the winners.

Since 2003, National Engineers Week Foundation has honored young engineering professionals with its New Faces of Engineering award.  This is the first year the popular initiative has expanded to recognize the best and brightest college engineering students.

Congratulations Moustafa Ezzat!

New Faces of Engineering College Edition is live on Facebook (www.facebook.com/collegeedition).  The page provides a source of academic and professional development opportunities available to students from National Engineers Week Foundation’s engineering association, university, and corporate partners.  Students can meet with their engineering peers in every field and learn about other events, internships, jobs, competitions, engineering associations and more.

Funding for New Faces of Engineering College Edition is provided by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES). For more information, visit www.eweek.org.

Learn more about engineering careers.

Participate in America’s Home Energy Education Challenge!

Author: Guest Author; Published: Sep 7, 2011; Category: Classroom materials, Education outreach, Energy, Energy Conservation, Energy Education, Energy sources, Environment, Uncategorized; Tags: Children, Classroom Instruction, Earth, Education, Energy, Energy Conservation, Teacher; Comments: Comments Off

Guest Author – Matthew Maguire Inman, Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, United States Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy

It’s that time again: Back to school season is officially here! Time for students to prepare for the new experiences and challenges that they will encounter throughout the upcoming school year.

One such challenge—from the Department of Energy in partnership with the National Science Teachers Association—aims to tap into the creativity and enthusiasm of students across the country.

America’s Home Energy Education Challenge is designed to educate students in grades 3-8 about the benefits of energy efficiency, and motivate them to encourage their families and communities to put energy and money-saving ideas learned in the classroom into action at home.

“This exciting competition is designed to inspire the next generation of energy leaders to take simple and affordable steps today that will save money and get them thinking about energy issues at an early age,” said Energy Secretary Chu.

There are two ways for teachers, students and families to participate: The first is through the Home Energy Challenge and the second is through the Energy Fitness Award. Each is designed to encourage learning about science and energy with the added benefit of saving money by saving energy. The Home Energy Challenge encourages students to work with their families to reduce home energy use—monitoring energy savings over a three-month period. Schools with the highest number of points earned for reducing household energy usage, student participation, creativity and overall quality of their local energy savings program qualify for awards.

The Energy Fitness Award is a separate individualized educational challenge scheduled to begin September 20, 2011. Modeled after the President’s Physical Fitness Test, the Energy Fitness Award encourages students to complete specific tasks, such as interpreting a home energy bill and learning how to conduct a home energy assessment, and then demonstrate their learning and proficiency. The Energy Fitness Award will challenge students to become smart energy users. Each student who successfully completes the components of the Energy Fitness Award will receive an Energy Fitness Badge.

Participating schools and classrooms, as well as Home School networks, will compete within 11 regions for more than $200,000 in prizes distributed at the regional and national levels. Official registration for the Home Energy Education Challenge began August 15, and ends on October 7, 2011. Students are encouraged to register with their teachers by September 30, 2011 to take advantage of the full energy savings period.

For more information, visit the Home Energy Education Challenge website. And for more on how saving energy saves you money, visit the Energy Savers and Kids Saving Energy pages. Also, visit energy4me.org for tips on how you can save more energy at home!

Energy Education Materials are a Hit!

Author: Guest Author; Published: Aug 8, 2011; Category: Classroom materials, Classroom presentations, Education outreach, Energy, Energy Conservation, Energy Education, Energy sources, Environment, Geology, Math, Renewable energy, Science; Tags: Children, Classroom Instruction, Education, Energy, energy challenges, Energy Conservation, Energy4me, Lesson Plans, Math, natural gas, Petroleum, Renewable, School, science, Student, sustainability, Teacher; Comments: Be the first

Guest Author – Mary Spruill, Executive Director, National Energy Education Development Project (NEED)

Energy4Me materials developed in partnership with NEED are a huge hit and will be used by NEED’s trainers throughout the 2011-2012 school year.

Throughout the year, The NEED Project (www.need.org) and Energy4me, the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) energy education program, work together on many energy education activities including the Teacher and Student Workshop at the Offshore Technology Conference and the Teacher and Student Workshop at SPE’s ATCE.  Each summer though, NEED’s energy programs get bigger and faster paced with so many kids and teachers to reach in only a few short weeks.  This June and July were no exception with over 550 kids and teachers in Washington, D.C. to participate in the 31st Annual NEED Youth Awards for Energy Achievement.  This event recognizes school groups who commit to learning about energy and to sharing their knowledge with their peers, their teachers and their communities.  Students submit portfolios of  their energy programming in April for review at the state and national level, and the winning schools come spend 4 days in the Nation’s Capital sharing their energy work, touring our monuments and museums, and meeting with elected and appointed officials.

On a sleepy Sunday morning during the conference – the kids are up early and working on hands-on activities featuring the lessons provided by Energy4Me and some lessons that NEED and Energy4Me created together.  The students are learning about porosity and permeability, and the work needed to bring oil and natural gas to market.  They learn about transportation efficiency too and consider ways to make the vehicles of tomorrow and their own driving habits more efficient too.  The activities from Energy4Me are engaging, fun, and provide students with the background they need to really understand the oil and natural gas resources we use each day.  They leave with big smiles, new friends, and new activities to take home to their communities and share.

As soon as the Youth Awards wraps up, NEED’s training team heads out to the NEED National Energy Conference for Educators.  This year’s conference in Denver, Colorado hosted 150 educators from across the country and from Thailand and the Saipan.  For a week, the educators were like students at summer camp – learning about each other and about energy so they could return to their classrooms and teach energy with excitement and fun.  The Energy4Me activities and the presentation resources allow students and teachers alike to look more deeply into oil and natural gas development and use.  This year’s opening speaker was Don McClure, Vice President for Community Relations, Legal and Finance at EnCana, one of America’s largest natural gas producers.  Don’s extensive background in energy provided teachers with a look at how diverse the industry is, the number of jobs available for all types of students, and the challenges and opportunities that abound in developing natural gas in America.  In the days that followed, teachers learned about density, drilling technologies, properties of oil and natural gas and are prepared to take the lessons home and open up the oil and natural gas world to their students.

But that’s not all.  After Denver, the team packed up and traveled to La Quinta, California for NEED’s Facilitator Training Conference.  This conference is hosted every few years and brings together teachers, NEED’s training staff, and energy professionals from many companies and  agencies to sharpen their facilitation skills, to train on new content and new materials, and to learn how to deliver energy curriculum and training to teachers in NEED’s 600+ energy trainings each year.  This year’s group of 40 trainers rolled up their sleeves and researched and presented about America’s leading energy sources, they debated the advantages and disadvantages of the energy sources we use today, and they developed methods to share energy information with teachers and students nationwide. The It is a busy (but fun!) summer and together with SPE, NEED is reaching thousands of teachers and students each year.  As America’s teachers head back to school this month, let’s take a minute to thank them and to encourage them to teach about energy as often as possible in class!

For the 2011-2012 NEED curriculum guides or to register for a NEED workshop near you visit www.need.org!

 

North-east schools get educated at All-Energy 2011

Author: Guest Author; Published: May 23, 2011; Category: Classroom materials, Classroom presentations, Education outreach, Energy, Energy Education, Engineering Careers, Geology, Math, Renewable energy, Science, SPE members, Technology, Uncategorized, Volunteering; Tags: Careers, Children, Classroom Instruction, Education, Energy, energy challenges, Energy4me, Engineering, Engineering Careers, School, science, SPE, Student, Teacher, Technology, Volunteer; Comments: Be the first

All-Energy hosted an Education Day at its 2011 conference Thursday 19th May to help educate local schools about a range of renewable topics.

Organised by Aberdeen Council, Aberdeenshire Council, the Energy Institute and the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Aberdeen, the event is aimed at teachers and careers advisors to help raise awareness of the Renewable sector.

The event also hosted the final of the ‘Electrocity Challenge’ where five teams of four children from Meldrum Academy, Peterhead Academy, Mackie Academy, Turriff Academy and Mintlaw Academy went head to head in an “ElectroCity” Competition.   ElectroCity is an online game that has been developed specifically for teachers and students between years 7 and 9. Students build and manage their own virtual towns and cities, making important decisions and learning about energy generation and environmental management. Representatives from a range of businesses led round tables to provide valuable industry information to subject-specialist teachers and career guidance experts.

Colin Black, SPE CG Chairman, Aberdeen Section, said:  “This event focuses on sharing information with teachers and pupils so they are better informed about the ‘whole energy’ sector and careers within it.  This includes the ‘energy mix’ of hydrocarbons and renewable as well as the vital role the oil and gas sector plays now and in the future.

This is a global energy industry with many opportunities for young people – SPE Aberdeen aims to continue to provide background information, facts, guidance on career paths and information on how to enter the industry.  This event is a positive step towards this.” 

SPE Aberdeen, along with other hosts, provided tour guides for teachers and pupils to meet many of the businesses exhibiting at the show. 

SPE collaboration with Schools is part of the global SPE initiative http://www.energy4me.org/  and SPE volunteers will be working closely with Schools during various events throughout this next term and anyone wishing to lend support should contact the Aberdeen Section, Career Guidance Committee at CG-Aberdeen@spemail.org

SPE Delta Section Visits Fontainbleau High School

Author: Guest Author; Published: Mar 30, 2011; Category: Classroom presentations, Engineering Careers, Science, SPE members, Uncategorized, Volunteering; Tags: Careers, Children, Earth science, Education, Engineering, Engineering Careers, School, science, SPE, Speaker, Student, Volunteer; Comments: Be the first

Guest Author – Courtney Sample, SPE Delta Section

On March 25th, four SPE young professional members and five LSU students visited Fontainbleau High School in Mandeville to discuss the oil and gas industry to four 10th/11th grade classes in AP Chemistry and Physics. Each class session began with introductions and either an explanation of job titles or class levels at LSU. The Fontainbleau students received advice about working in the petroleum industry and preparation for college.

After introductions, the presenters showed a few power point slides from the Energy4Me prepared presentation. During the presentation the students had numerous questions about the industry and college life. One major topic of discussion was degree selection and college advice. Sofia Miranda, a freshman at LSU talked about the importance of time management in college versus high school and how important studying is in college. Wendy Redpath, a junior at LSU talked about her personal experience of switching from Civil to Petroleum Engineering and the course overlap between the two disciplines. Courtney Sample, a reservoir engineer for Chevron discussed the importance of internships for students to confirm their college major choice.  Elizabeth Mann, a facilities engineer for Shell talked about recruiting and what companies are looking for in students. Everyone was very engaged during the discussions and eager to ask questions about engineering.

Another major topic of discussion was the many opportunities in the oil and gas industry. Dakoriye Charles, a freshman at LSU discussed his traveling experiences because of the petroleum industry. Jack Carona, a petroleum engineer for Griffin and Griffin talked about how his non routine job changes daily.  Richard Zaunbrecher, a deepwater exploration team lead with Shell also talked about his experience as a supervisor in the petroleum industry. Partnering with LSU made this event a great success! The college and workforce perspectives helped the students understand what it means to be a petroleum engineer. Other participants included Teddy Yao a freshman at LSU and James Stiernberg a graduate student from LSU.

Learn more about becoming a petroleum engineer.