SPE Gulf Coast To Hold Two Summer Teacher Workshops

For the third year, SPE’s Gulf Coast Section is holding two week-long summer teacher training workshops called ‘Exploring Earth Science:  A Summer Institute’. About 60 teachers (grades 4 though 8) in the Houston area are expected to attend. The workshops will be held 22-26 June and 13-17 July held in partnership with the University of Houston Clear Lake (UHCL). Activities will include a mix of classroom lecture, hands-on/interactive classroom activities, and field trips. Topics include geology, earth science, environmental science, and energy content areas.

These teacher workshops were conceived and developed by Brenda Weiser, Ed.D. Director of Environmental Education, Environmental Institute of Houston (EIH) and Lecturer, School of Education, UHCL, and funded by a grant from the SPE-Gulf Coast Section. Previous years' workshops have been so successful, that there is a 75 person waitlist for the 2009 events.

On the third day of the workshop, Gulf Coast Section volunteers representing a broad cross-section of energy-industry disciplines engage with teachers in small-group format discussions about careers in the energy industry, and provide demonstrations and materials to encourage classroom presentation of energy industry topics.

Throughout the year, the Gulf Coast Section also donates Energy4me’s “Oil and Natural Gas” books for other science teacher workshops throughout Houston. Section members also participate in the annual Boy Scout Fair, student science and technology fairs, and Engineers Week events.  They hold classroom presentations almost weekly, and have nine locations throughout Houston where they keep classroom presentation materials, including the Energy4me Kit, so members can more easily access.

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SPE member Sam Clayton describing the role of a Geoscientist to participating teachers at 2008 workshop