Fuel Hunters
by Molly, Eva, Gracie and Logie
In Generation Science, P4-P7 were learning interesting facts about oil. We learnt where it comes from, what it’s used for and how fuel hunters detect it.
Oil comes from the centre of the Earth and it is used as fuel. They detect it by using sound waves which reverberate against the rock that may contain oil. There are three rocks that complete the oil cycle.
First there is the SOURCE ROCK; which, under lots of heat and pressure, turns into oil. Then there is the RESERVOIR ROCK; that acts like a sponge soaking up the oil. Finally, there is the CAP ROCK; it stops the oil from going up to earth. But what you need most is TIME; you need 350,000,000 years before the cycle is complete.
After learning all these amazing facts we built four two metre high oil rigs. To build these oil rigs we were split into four teams. Each team had a green, red and blue leader, a foreman or two and two nuts and bolts people. Together we followed pictures and diagrams to create our oil rig. The reason for doing this was to understand how the oil is drilled up from below earth.
Overall, it was a fantastic presentation and we would be thrilled to do it again.
We have asked what people thought was most amazing:
“I was amazed at how different the earth was thousands of years ago.” Elena Cameron
“I was surprised about all the different rocks used to create oil.” Bea Yielder
“I was surprised that oil is just dead plankton” Logie Johnston

Teamwork building an Oil Rig

Aurora Borealis

Magnetic storytelling

Do these magnets attract or repel?