Preparation

Download and copy the combined worksheets for this lesson.

Day 1

Teacher will write the word "OIL" on the board. Students will be asked to list all the uses they can think of for oil in their notes or on paper distributed (including gasoline, kerosene, plastics, lubricants, etc.) Encourage them to consult web sites for petroleum industry, e.g. BP, Exxon, Shell, etc.

Students should share their lists with a partner and expand their lists by combining their uses for oil with the uses their partners' found.

The teacher should ask the students to give feedback on their lists and write their uses for petroleum on the chalkboard.

The teacher might reinforce the fact that students already understand the many uses of oil; then ask, as a transition, "When did the world start to use oil as we know it?"

Show the class Source 1: 1859 photograph of Drake and his oil well.

Discuss:

• What was being used before oil for:
  
  
  • Lubrication? (animal fat, beeswax)
  
  
  • Lighting? (whale oil, animal fat)
  
  
  • Heating and fuel? (wood, coal)
  
  


• What process is needed in order to make oil usable? (Refining, see Britannica.com)


• Why is this process so critical to the use of oil? (Without the refining process the oil could not be turned into usable products)

Closure: Reinforce the importance of the process of turning a natural resource into a usable product.

Homework: Students are to draw a diagram of the steps they believe are necessary in the process of getting oil from the ground to the finished products we use. They will need to bring this to class tomorrow (distribute oaktag paper or plain white paper).

Day 2

Review the importance of oil. Ask students to list the steps in the process of oil production and distribution by sharing their diagrams with class.

Steps: (The following steps should be a part of the diagrams)

1. Locating oil


2. Drilling oil


3. Immediate storage of oil


4. Refining oil


5. Transportation of oil


6. Transporting finished products


7. Marketing products


8. Distribution mechanisms

Tracing the changes

Divide the class into teams of seven. Assign each team member a step in the oil process to research from Drake's era and now. They should use their Internet research skills to find a picture showing each process (documenting with the URL), draw a sketch of the photo they find, write a brief description, and a summary sentence of how the process has changed and stayed the same. Use Worksheet 1a-g: Tracing the Steps of Oil: Then and Now, giving one process to each team member. Students can use the links at on the Student Resources page as a starting point, but may find their pictures anywhere.

Afterward, teams should get together to assemble a description of the whole refining process and write a summary paragraph of how the overall oil production and distribution has changed.

Following are suggestions for images you might expect them to find:

Mapping oil production

Have students use maps on page 106 in the Pennsylvania Atlas (Temple University) to identify where the early oil production was in the state.

By searching for "oil reserves" on http://www.britannica.com/ or other comprehensive online encyclopedia, find or ask students to find a contemporary oil production map of the world and identify where major oil production and reserves are today. Present or have students read current information on present oil consumption, reserves, and production at this site. Discuss:

• How and why has oil consumption changed? (Increased demand for oil, because of oil products, expanded population, mechanization of agriculture, new transportation means including the automobile, trucks, airplanes, use for heating, etc.)
• Why has the production of oil and its process changed? (Need for supply to meet demand.)


• How have things changed? (Review of steps in locating and processing oil.)


• How are they the same? (The steps in process remains the same only the degree, efficiency and scope of the process have changed.)

Homework: Be prepared to answer this question: What is the future of petroleum use?

Day 3

Begin class by discussing answers from last night's homework:

• What is going to be the role of oil in the future? (Answers will vary.)


• Review with the class what the Pennsylvanians' lifestyles were like before the discovery of oil and the manufacture of oil products:


• What kinds of fuel were used for what purposes? (Wood or coal for heating in winter, wood for cooking, transportation limited to steam powered vehicles or horse-drawn carriages or horseback, candles or whale oil lighting, products were all made of natural products.)


• Ask class to identify the early uses of oil. (Kerosene for lighting , lubrication, etc.)


• What major changes did the internal combustion engine bring about? (The ability to have affordable personal transportation by the 1920's in the form of the automobile, trucks replacing railroad, diesel replacing steam power.)


• What was the impact on the demand for oil and oil products? (Increase in demand lead to the need to increase supply)


• During this period of industrial growth what other industries and technologies became important in the United States? (Steel production, coal production, electricity and its uses, railroads, communication)

Closure. Discuss:

How are the growth of all these industries related? (All are interconnected and require an energy source)

How have we benefited from the use of oil? (Improved lifestyle, mobility, affordable products, etc.)

What have been some negatives from the use of oil? (Pollution, smog, impact on habitat and environment)