GUES students take in “This School Rocks” program

As natural gas and oil development remains a relatively new industry many are still learning the concerns and how the industry works. Students at Guthrie Upper Elementary School learned first hand how it all works out.

Amanda Friese with Chesapeake Energy visited Cheryl Pratt’s fourth, fifth and sixth grade students on Friday and presented “This School Rocks” program.

This School Rocks is an educational program through which Chesapeake and its employees promote technology, science and innovation and spark student interest in science, engineering and other careers critical to our success. This School Rocks is a company wide program that teaches elementary through high school students about geology, hydrocarbons and the world underground.

Chesapeake geologists, engineers and other natural gas and oil professionals visit schools, museums and other locations to explain how the company finds natural gas and oil, and drills wells to bring it to the surface. Demonstrations using common materials such as sand, water and vegetable oil show young learners what happens thousands of feet below the surface and help them visualize how to extract natural gas and oil from rocks far below the Earth.

Students seemed to really take in the program by answering several questions and at the same time asking several themselves.

Friese explained the different rocks that geologists come across when searching for an area to drill for the precious oil and natural gas. Later, she explained how the workers drill into the earth and find the resources.