Ralph Zema

Memorial High School teacher Ralph Zema is weighing the possibility of starting a geology program at his high school after touring the OceanStar offshore drilling rig and museum in Galveston.

Zema joined 15 other teachers from across the region in the drilling rig and museum tour, thanks to Houston A+ Challenge’s week long teacher externship program, held June 9-13.

He was one of 12 Spring Branch ISD teachers to sign up for a variety of externship opportunities, ranging from the Greater Houston Partnership and Red Cross to Parkway Chevrolet and Schlumberger.  

The 6-year-old program is unique to the Houston area, with the goal of immersing teachers in the business world. Houston A+ Challenge hopes to instill teachers with a sense of connection to the business world and expose them to potential jobs for students.

“Most teachers have a calling to go into teaching, and a result of that is that they go straight into the classroom, and they don’t have the same exposure to the business world as some of their students will,” Melissa Davis, director of public affairs for Houston A+ Challenge, said.

Participating teachers often create lesson plans based on their experiences with the program, so that students get exposure to the real world while learning the schools’ curriculum.

Zema, a 9th grade world geography teacher at Memorial High, externed with Shell Oil Co. He applied to the program to learn more about what skills companies look for in employees.

“I think any opportunity for teachers to learn about areas outside the classroom is a great experience,” he said.

Businesses look at the program as a type of investment, a way to impact the classroom directly through their teacher externs, Davis said. They want to reach the workforce’s next generation of students.

Zema also saw the program as an investment, and was eager to make connections with Shell Oil.

“Maybe during the year I could bring in people from Shell to speak to the class, or I could take some students over to visit Shell. I think the students would really like the virtual reality exhibit at the exploration and production plant we visited,” he said.

Terri Drabik-O’Reilley, a workforce development specialist for Shell Oil, agreed with Zema, saying that connecting with teachers was the main goal of the program. “It’s a partnership – that’s the whole idea.”

The group toured the OceanStar offshore drilling rig and museum, learning about the oil industry as a whole, discussing things like the basic functions of each type of rig and the many occupations that an energy company had to offer.

The OceanStar used to be a fully functional offshore rig, but the Offshore Energy Center has revamped it into a valuable educational experience. The Oceanstar had aquariums, model rigs and tankers, 3-D visuals of undersea terrain and an introductory film.

Its science classroom compared the physical aspects of an oil rig to skyscrapers, to show just how massive a single rig can be.

The museum also had a career center, which provided career aptitude tests and a list of oil industry occupations, as well as a station to dress up in typical offshore oil workers’ uniforms and take photos.

The program inspired Zema enough for him to consider some curriculum changes at Memorial High. “One of my goals is to possibly start a geology program [at Memorial] to help get students interested in the energy field,” he said.

However, he thinks that teaching about the oil industry in the classroom might pose some difficulties. Just some of the terms used to talk about the industry are daunting. Words like “sediment,” “distillation” and “viscosity” reveal the difficulty posed in teaching about this subject. The challenge lies in making the terms and analytical concepts more understandable to high school students, Zema said.

During the rest of the week, Shell’s externs visited the company’s Exploration and Production plant at Woodcreek, talked to various employees and reviewed sample lessons with hands-on options to use in their classrooms.

“They each learn a lesson, then teach it to the other teachers,” Drabik-O’Reilley said. These lessons examined subjects such as alternative fuels, exploration, production, distillation and other topics.

For more information about Shell Oil Company, or to access sample lesson plans dealing with the oil industry, go to www.shell.com/us/energizeyourfuture.

For more information about the Houston A+ Challenge, visit: www.houstonaplus.org. Applications for next year’s program will be accepted beginning in January 2009.

Teachers Who Participated in the Houston A+ Externships

Victoria Putnam	Pate Engineering	6th Computer Lit\8th Tech	Spring Woods MS
Lori Baker	Epstein, Becker, Green, Wickliff & Hall	9-12 Computers & Law	Memorial HS
Linda Guzman	Baker Hughes	World History - grade 10	Spring Woods HS
Shauna Rogers	El Paso Corporation	World History 10th	Stratford HS
Tracy Blair	Hewlett Packard	9-12 Digital Graphics	Northbrook HS
Barbie Miller	Mayor's Office	English II and IV	Spring Woods HS
Julie Abrahams	United Space Alliance	10 AP World History 11 & 12 Eur	Stratford HS
Shanna Ciarella	Harris County Judge Ed Emmett	English I, Pre-AP	Memorial HS
Mary Reed	Southeast Texas Legal Clinic	9th World Geography	Memorial HS
Holly Hartman	Texas State Repr Distr 134 Ellen Cohen	9-12 Journalism/Yearbook	Memorial HS
Ralph Zema	Shell Oil Company	9th World Geography	Memorial HS
Todd McCardle	University of Houston	12th Grade English (AP/GT)	Memorial HS

Story written by Communications Department intern Kelli Trapnell.

posted 06-24-08