Drilling into Science: A Hands-on Cooperative Learning Oil Exploration Activity Designed for Middle School and High School Students

As stories of rising oil prices and impending oil shortages continue to make front-page news, it becomes increasingly important that K-12 students are exposed to some of the fundamental concepts behind the exploration, discovery, and production of this valuable natural resource. As part of a collaborative effort for the National Science Foundation's GK-12 program at Rutgers University, we have developed an interactive oil exploration activity, which allows students to investigate some of these topics. Students become geologists and oil prospectors for the day as they work their way through a set of real geologic data in hopes of becoming the group that finds the most oil. This hands-on activity meets many of the state mandated educational standards and can be used to supplement any earth science or natural resources unit.

Students begin this activity by discussing many of the basics of petroleum geology, including the formation, exploration, production, applications, and controversies of petroleum usage. Students will then analyze a series of geologic maps in which they will need to use what they know about petroleum geology to determine the best locations to drill for oil. Once the drilling locations are selected, students will actually drill for oil in their own “oil field”, which consist of covered containers filled with sand and buried oil reservoirs. During the drilling, students are responsible for keeping track of their drilling expenses and for collecting data on their discovered reservoirs. The activity will conclude with a series of calculations in which the students will determine which group made the most money by subtracting their total drilling costs from the amount of money earned from each oil reservoir discovery. All lesson plans, handouts, and setup instructions are available upon request from the author.