Latest news with #EastFairmontMiddleSchool
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Oil and gas teacher workshop aims to end West Virginia 'brain drain'
MORGANTOWN — East Fairmont Middle School teacher Michael Leshko squats down at eye level with a contraption that contains boiling green mouthwash. The mouthwash boils off some gases, which travel down a coil encased in glass. Leshko holds a bag of water over the piping, which cools the gas until it condenses again and drips out into a small plastic cup. Leshko joked it was West Virginia's grand tradition of making moonshine, but in the case of the oil and gas teachers workshop he took part in Thursday, the tradition took on an entirely different significance. 'What we're doing is boiling and collecting the alcohol that is boiled off,' Leshko said. 'This is exactly the same way gasoline or other products are made from crude oil or from the liquid form of natural gas that is pumped out of the ground in West Virginia.' The Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia held its 7th annual Science Teacher Workshop in Morgantown on Thursday. More than 40 teachers from across the state received curriculum materials and hands-on experience with eight training units that are related to the state's natural gas and oil industry. Charlie Burd, president of the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia, said the workshop gives teachers the latest details and information on the industry so they can take that information back to their students and incorporate it in class. Burd said today's students will someday be candidates for jobs within the oil and gas industry. 'Anytime we can get children or students more engaged in our industry at an earlier time, the better,' he said. 'The better off we are to having a willing and waiting workforce. Waiting till high school, when they're ready to graduate, isn't as good as trying to catch them early on in their late middle school or early high school stage.' Burd said teachers learn all aspects of the industry at the workshop, from distribution, to drilling, well construction, environmental safety, storage, transmission and other essential parts of the field. Teachers also learn how natural gas is fractured and processed, and how heavier hydrocarbons such as propane, butane and isobutane are separated out and how those elements are used to create the synthetics that appear in everyday life. There's also a geopolitical aspect to the education teachers bring back to their classrooms. 'We take natural gas, and we produce so much of it here in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania area that we produce six times more than we use,' Burd said. 'What we don't use here, we ship out to other parts of the country or from a geopolitical standpoint, we liquefy and send it to other allies across the globe.' Craig Whitaker, one of the education specialists at the event, said the ultimate goal of the workshop was to get children to understand how oil and gas reflect on the everyday objects they use and things they do, and how that connects back to careers. Whitaker added the oil and gas industry has openings across the educational spectrum, a degree in engineering isn't necessary for a job in the field. 'For the workforce of the future, kids need to know what jobs are out there and available for them that don't necessarily require a four-year degree or even a technical degree,' Whitaker said. 'Being able to make those connections in the classroom to get them to springboard them into careers within this industry, because — Pennsylvania, parts of Kentucky — you're looking at one of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the entire world right now. So, these are up-and-coming jobs that could be sustained for a lifetime.' Whitaker said the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics aspect is important because the industry is trying to get kids to apply the problem solving skills they learn in the classroom and take it to the field on their own. Maureen Miller, a middle school teacher in Putnam County Schools, said the timing of the workshop is perfect because it happens at the end of the school year, and gives teachers plenty of time to develop lesson plans from the material they learn at the workshop. She's been to the workshop seven years in a row, and regularly incorporates what she learns at the workshop into her classroom. 'I created an entire project based upon all the activities that are done in this,' she said. 'They have to build a pipeline themselves. They have to work together to develop ways, if they were an oil and gas company. So, so they have to develop their company logo, their business cards. They have to research all the different types of jobs in there.' The final project has students build a simulated pipeline that goes across Putnam County, which is the pipeline that exists now. A sample of oil or gas has to travel through the pipeline for students to be successful. Miller said mastering these skills is important in order to create productive members of society, and it is important to make students aware of what opportunities the field provides. 'First of all, preventing brain drain from our state,' Miller said. 'These wonderful students, so they stay here in our state and contribute to our West Virginia society and be a productive citizen. That is ideally what we want to see happen.'
Yahoo
23-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Marion County Schools inspire young minds with inaugural interactive festival
FAIRMONT, (WBOY) — Hundreds of families and students in Marion County and around the area got to explore nearly every interest you could think of at Saturday's inaugural Science, Technology, Engineering Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) & Career and Technical Education (CTE) festival, hosted by East Fairmont Middle School. The event was years in the making but planning started in August, with a total cost of about $15,000. Grants and donations from local businesses and organizations helped to make it possible. East Fairmont Middle School Principal Debbie Conover told 12 News why the event was important. 'If these things aren't out there and available for kids to see, where else are they going to see it?' Kaitlyn Knight, a North Marion High School Math teacher and STEAM festival coordinator, originally started a similar event three years ago that was a success and she dreamt of making it bigger and available to as many students as possible in the county. 'I think that's really the beauty of it, that there is something for everyone and they will find something that they're interested in,' Knight said. 'Because that's kind of our goal in education is to find things kids are interested in to help them learn.' Students and their families got to do plenty of hands on learning by operating robots, going into immersive spaces like the Starlab, looking inside a brain that's suffered a traumatic brain injury, learning about bees, birds and other animals and much more. Disc golf gets people outdoors for a cause in Fairmont Middle school STEAM Instructor and Coordinator Margie Suder was happy students participating. 'I think that it's hands on and a lot of students who don't play school very well are very good with their hands and their thinking and their creativity, and their critical thinking and so this is a way for them to express that, this is a way for them to build and it's OK to make mistakes and that's exactly what engineers do, is make mistakes and then learn from them.' 'To get those students engaged thinking about all these scientific, math, processes that they work with and really just to teach them to be better thinkers and more innovative in their everyday journeys,' Jamie Knight, an elementary STEAM teacher for Marion County Schools said. Plans for next year's event are already underway with organizers saying it will be even bigger and better, set to return to the middle school. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Town of Monongah asks for county funds for preventive work on its water system
FAIRMONT — By moving a water line underground, the Town of Monongah hopes to avoid damage to its current water system in the event of a flood. 'By boring under the creek bed, we can ensure that it stays intact, which is crucial because whenever there's flooding the line tends to get pulled apart,' Monongah Mayor John Palmer said. Monongah received funding approval for the project at Wednesday's Marion County Commission meeting. Palmer said residents who live on the hill currently face significant water issues during floods, with residents having to wait until floodwaters recede for water service to return. It's happened a few times since Palmer's been mayor, with the latest incident caused by ice chunks that damaged the line. Palmer said boring under the creek is the best solution to the problem. It will also prevent crews from having to wade into water to repair the broken line. The invoice for the project was roughly $28,000, but County Administrator Kris Cinalli said he expected the final cost to be closer to $26,000 since Cinalli expected the town is tax exempt. Commissioners voted to approve the full amount. Commissioners also heard outside agency requests from two organizations. Margie Suder, STEAM teacher from East Fairmont Middle School, said her school will host a districtwide science, technology, engineering, arts and math festival in March, focused on career and technical education. She asked commissioners for funding. 'We have 36 agencies that will be coming out and what our goal is to get our younger kids motivated to study STEM,' Suder said. 'And, to get our high school students a career, a CTE opportunity to meet with industries and all kinds of nonprofits, so they can begin to look at internships and where they want to go to college.' Vendors from NASA, the FBI, Agile5 and others will be at the event. The money would go toward purchasing an embroidery machine and an energy bike that would show kids how much work it takes to generate a small amount of power. Suder hopes the fair can become a yearly thing. Suder said the school district expects up to 3,000 guests at the fair. Rebecca Burton from the Seth Burton Memorial Fairmont Flyers Disc Golf Club also made a request. The nonprofit wanted support from the County Commission to continue growing the sport in Fairmont. They asked for a $10,000 title sponsorship of this year's disc golf tournament, adding that the sport helps tourism grow in the county. Cinalli said so far the county has approved $222,840 in outside agency requests. About $21,000 of that amount came from the Opioid Settlement Fund, making the county's contribution closer to $200,000, about average for the county Cinalli said. He added the request amount is a small portion of the overall budget, but before anything can be approved the final numbers related to expenditures and revenue need to come in. Cinalli said the county is about a week away from compiling that type information. 'We're not anticipating any major fluctuations in the budget but things change daily anymore,' Cinalli said. 'Just yesterday, the West Virginia House of Delegates floated the idea of abolishing PEIA. As long as nothing like that happens, we should be in good shape.'
