I’m all for promoting interactive learning for children. But BP’s board game about the “thrills of drilling” was a bit much.
And this classroom activity touting the fun of oil drilling [PDF] — from the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service — is shorely off-target.
“In this activity you will create a portion of the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico where there is an oil deposit. Your students will try to locate the oil by ‘drilling’ for it,” say the instructions for teachers. Black shoe polish is to be used to represent an oil deposit.
Weirdly, they don’t warn you what to do if the shoe polish bursts forth after an uncontrollable blowout, taking out the class guinea pig and filling the room with dark goo.
Most alarmingly, MSS — which earned quite the reputation for sexual misconduct — has created this image to go along with the activity packet:
Is it me, or is this logo design more appropriate for an oil spill condom than a so-called “classroom activity”?
(Get even more “education resources” from our friends at the former MMS.)
Thanks to Adriene Hill for the tip!
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