Welcome to Day 2!

Welcome to Day 2 of STEM Without Borders Summer Camp. Yesterday, we learned about what STEM is and what it means for our world. We also got to do a bit of exploring into the aerospace industry and learned about how local companies have branched out across the globe.

Today, we’ll explore:

The Oil & Gas industry
Learn about the Tulsa Historical Museum
A couple of energy-related hands-on activities

Getting Started

Oil & Gas Industry

Conventional oil and gas refers to petroleum, or crude oil, and raw natural gas extracted from the ground by drilling wells and pumping the materials out. Have you ever seen one of these in a field alongside the road?

Roughly one-quarter of working Oklahomans are employed directly or indirectly in the energy industry. Oil and natural gas maintain a commanding lead when it comes to job growth in this industry. About 20 percent of all jobs in the state are tied to the oil and natural gas sectors.

Wind energy has begun to make a noticeable economic impact. With about two dozen wind farms in the state, the wind energy sector provides about 4,000 jobs and contributes $340 million in labor income.

There are many great companies in Oklahoma that have nationwide and international influences:

Cimarex is an exploration and production company with operations in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. This means that they drill wells in these areas and pull oil and gas from the ground. They’re headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Schlumberger is the world's leading oilfield services provider. Cutting-edge solutions for reservoir characterization, drilling, production & processing. They don’t drill the wells themselves, but they do provide supplies and services to those who do. They’re headquartered in Houston, TX, but have offices in Romania, Kuwait, Canada, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, France, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Bartlesville, OK.

TD Williamson serves the gathering, transmission and distribution sectors of the pipeline industry with a global portfolio of products and services. This means that when the fuel is being transferred via pipeline, they have products and services that help with that process. TD Williamson is headquartered in Tulsa, but they have locations across the world. This includes Egypt, Nigeria, Angola, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Belgium, Scotland, Serbia, and so many more!

Pipeline Pig

Interview with a STEM Professional - Sam Boehning

Meet Sam Boehning, a Mechanical Engineer with TD Williamson. Learn more about this company and a product they manufacture called a "pig."

Tulsa Historical Museum

The Tulsa Historical Museum is a wonderful resource for all families across the area to learn about Tulsa’s rich history. We encourage you to visit when things return to normal and your family feels comfortable. Interact through programs and tours, research online through photo collections and virtual exhibits, or watch documentaries about Tulsa’s past. There are many ways to connect with Tulsa’s history!

Be sure to learn about the historic oil boom by viewing and reading postcards from oil fields throughout Oklahoma.

STEM Challenge - Model Earth Core Samples

Sourced from Teach Engineering: https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/cub_earth_lesson07_activity1

How do engineers find oil? One tool engineers use to find oil is core drilling. Huge drills extract cylinders of rock or sediment from below the Earth's surface. Petroleum engineers use microscopes to study these cores in a laboratory, looking for the presence of fossil fuels. They use their understanding of the composition of the layers of the Earth to analyze the (potential) reservoir rock properties (porosity, permeability, saturations, compressibility, etc.) to make informed decisions about where to drill, and minimize the number of costly wells they must drill to obtain oil.

Materials Needed:

Model of the planet Earth
Clear plastic straws
Scissors (optional)

Earth Model

For this activity, there are 6 possible layers you could find in your model:

Blue - Oceanic Plate
Light Brown - Continental Plate
Dark Brown- Oil!
Red - Mantle
Yellow - Outer Core
White - Inner Core

Instructions:

Gently examine your clay model. Refer to the worksheet on the next page and make predictions about what layers you think you’ll find. Imagine that this small model represents the big oil fields of the world such as in Texas, Oklahoma or the Middle East.
Take your straw (unwrapped) and plunge it into the model Earth. Next, carefully remove the straw to reveal your core sample.
Do this with another straw in another area of the model.
Optional step - Use scissors to carefully cut open the plastic straw. Use caution when cutting near the clay plug, so as to not smash the clay layers and be sure not to cut yourself on the edges of the straw or scissors. Remove the clay plug.
Fill out the next part of the worksheet - Part B.
Use your engineering notebook to write a short journal entry from the point of view of an engineer who has just discovered the layers of the Earth at one location through core sampling. Be sure to include your questions, concerns, feelings and any other thoughts about the experience.

Troubleshooting Tips

What should happen: Students obtain a nice core sample with clearly defined layers contained in the straw.
Oops, it did not happen. Why?
- If the layers are mixed or smashed together, the clay is too soft. Let the clay dry for a short time after creating the model Earths. But do not let the clay become too dry or the straws will be unable to cut through it.
- After cutting the straw, the core sample got smashed. Since this is a delicate process, it may help to have an adult try it again using a razor blade.

STEM@HOME Challenge - Tallest Derrick

Now that we’ve taken some core samples to determine where to set up our oil derrick, let’s build one.

Your challenge is to build the tallest freestanding derrick possible using the materials provided.

Derrick: A derrick is either a crane for lifting material or a framework over an oil well that allows the drilling machinery to be raised and lowered. Derricks are also used on ships to handle cargo.