The objective of this activity is for students to create a board game through researching what it takes to move oil from its source to their homes, vehicles and area industries. Each group of four students will create a game to be played by four other students.
Then students will demonstrate their knowledge of the drilling, harvesting, refining, transport and use of oil, through successfully going from the start to the finish of the game.
Student Materials
From Field to Furnace/How Oil Travels from It's Source to You
You have been given the challenge of creating a board game that will give your classmates a fun and interactive way to learn about all aspects of using oil as an energy source. Using some or all of the materials below, your group will lead your peers on a journey from an off- shore oil rig, to the refinery and ultimately to "their hometown".
Materials
First, your teacher will arrange the class into groups of four. Then decide the role that each member of your group will play in making the game. Perhaps one of you likes to draw, while two of you are more comfortable with researching information on the computer. The fourth member can be an overall organizer or fill in where- ever necessary. Once all of your research is complete, the entire team should work on creating the information cards that will be used in the game. When making the board, remember to be creative! Make it visually appealing and add steps that may make it more of a challenge. You can add structures if you want as long as they are removable. When writing out the information cards that will move players around the board, keep in mind that every team may find slightly different variations of information during their research, so try to provide a range when expressing numeric data. Remember to vary the format and difficulty of the questions on the information cards. Keep in mind that the playing of the game should take four players a minimum of 30 minutes and maximum of 60 minutes to complete. This should be confirmed by your group test playing the game before submitting it. Each member of the class will fill out an evaluation of each game that they play. These evaluations will be submitted to both the teacher and the team members that created the game.
The following topics should be researched and included in the making of the game: geology of oil; history of oil in the gulf; off-shore oil rigs/drilling; refining oil/oil products; transporting oil; oil use/effects of use on environment.