Reaching Out to Teachers

DeAnn Craig, Chairperson, SPE Energy Information Committee

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles by members of SPE’s Energy Information Committee. Send comments about this article to energyed@energy4me.org.

On 18 July, the US National Petroleum Council released its latest study, titled “Facing the Hard Truths About Energy” (www.npc.org). It is a sobering assessment of the challenges that the US and the world must face to have sufficient energy supply for a growing world population and a growing world economy. Communicating this information is more important than ever.

For many years, SPE has encouraged its members to speak in local classrooms about energy, our industry, and about careers in our industry. We also have recognized that in this critical time of energy challenges, we need to find ways to reach even more students, especially in areas where we do not have members.

One way for SPE to increase its impact is to provide information to teachers. Teachers are on the front line of creating energy awareness. Teachers are preparing the future leaders of companies, universities, and public agencies—the very people who will ultimately make critical decisions that affect our planet’s energy supply. We can help teachers prepare students to become more informed about all facets of energy.

Last summer, SPE began working with the National Energy Education Development Project (NEED) in Washington, DC, the leading provider of energy-education programs and materials to schools in 45 US states. Founded more than 25 years ago with funding from the US Department of Energy, NEED’s mission is to promote an energy-conscious and energy-educated society. You can find out more about NEED at www.need.org. All NEED teacher-training materials on energy are correlated to US national science curriculum standards that are readily accepted in schools. Therefore, SPE does not have to create materials. We are looking for similar educational organizations in other countries with which we can partner to reach teachers, and we welcome your suggestions.

SPE has been providing speakers for NEED’s annual teacher training conferences to talk about our industry and to answer questions. Our presentations focus on debunking myths about the oil industry. Last year, Energy Information Committee member Bill Pike spoke in Seattle, Washington, and I spoke in Denver, reaching about 150 teachers from around the country, including many from non-oil-producing states. They asked a lot of hard questions about gasoline prices and the future of the industry, as well as technical questions. Assuming that each teacher has 150 students, we potentially reached 22,500 students in those two presentations. That is just for one school year. Multiply that number by the number of years that a teacher will be in the classroom, and you can see why it is so important for SPE to continue to seek these types of outreach opportunities.

In July, SPE again sent speakers to NEED’s annual teacher conferences, reaching more than 160 teachers. Ron Hinn of Houston, who received SPE’s Distinguished Service Award in 2006 for his Introduction to the Oil Patch courses, spoke to teachers in Alexandria, Virginia. Pike spoke to teachers in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

If you would like to see copies of the presentations that were given, go to www.energy4me.org and look under speaker resources. Better yet, if you have the opportunity to visit a classroom or to talk to teachers in your area but do not have the time to develop your own presentation, use one of the speeches provided on the website.

In addition to these annual teacher conferences, SPE is partnering with NEED to bring Energy Education Institutes to teachers at major industry conferences. The 2007 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) presented an all-day workshop with NEED for Houston-area teachers, including a tour of the amazing exhibition floor. The teachers got fun, hands-on classroom activities they can use immediately to “energize” their students.

How important is energy education to local teachers? OTC received more than 300 applicants for 75 available spaces. The program was expanded to allow 100 teachers to attend. Surprisingly, the greatest number of registration requests came from primary school teachers. The feedback from the teachers about the event was overwhelmingly positive.

We are planning an Energy Education Institute with NEED at this year’s SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) in Anaheim, California. We hope to reach about 100 teachers from California. The teacher event is in addition to the traditional exhibition tour provided to local high school students at ATCE each year. We need volunteers to take teachers around the exhibit floor at ATCE. All of us who have spoken to teachers have found it to be very rewarding.

If you can help at ATCE or would like to share your experiences with students and teachers, feel free to contact the Energy Information Committee at energyed@energy4me.org.

At the OTC workshop, primary-grade teachers learned songs that tell about major energy sources.

SPE Foundation Creates Graduate Fellowship

The SPE Foundation has created the Nico van Wingen Memorial Graduate Fellowship in Petroleum Engineering. Supported by the foundation’s van Wingen fund, up to two awards will be given in the amount of USD 5,000 each per year. Eligible students must be members of an official SPE student chapter and must be studying at the PhD level and intending to pursue careers in academia. The fellowship is renewable for up to 4 years with an annual confirmation from the student’s adviser. Any university with an SPE student chapter that offers a PhD degree in petroleum engineering may nominate one candidate.

Van Wingen was an evaluation engineer, consultant, and a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Southern California. He played a major role in the development of oil production technology in the US, Austria, Canada, West Germany, Iran, Turkey, and Venezuela. He was active on many SPE committees, won the Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, and was named an SPE Distinguished Member.

Requirements for application for the fellowship include:

Nomination submitted by the SPE Student Chapter Faculty Adviser or Department Chair
Application completed by the student
Statement of Purpose completed by the student
Official transcripts for all institutions attended
Two sealed letters of recommendation
Student’s resume

All documents must be submitted together with the nomination form from the Faculty Adviser/Department Chair to the Nico van Wingen Memorial Fellowship Committee, SPE Foundation, P.O. Box 833836, Richardson, Texas, 75083-3836, USA. The submission deadline is 1 November of each year.

The SPE Foundation also offers the Gus Archie Memorial Scholarship through the Archie Fund of the foundation, which is awarded to outstanding incoming freshmen. More information about this award can be found here: www.spe.org/speapp/spe/about/foundation/gus_archie.htm.