Pupils from Logie Durno School in Aberdeenshire found out about how rocks and fossils formed millions of years ago have helped shape today’s oil and gas industry at a workshop at BP’s North Sea headquarters in Aberdeen.
The 23 primary 4-7 pupils were taking part in one of the weekly activity days organised under the oil major’s Link Schools project.
The morning session gives them a chance to handle a variety of rocks, learn how they were formed and turn rock detectives to identify and name rocks and fossil samples based on detailed descriptions.
The afternoon session saw them don 3-D glasses for a three-dimensional virtual tour of a floating platform to learn how oil and gas are extracted from the sea bed and how they are used.
The Link Schools programme is led by Paul Wilson, head teacher at Drumoak Primary School, who has been seconded to work for two years as BP’s Education Co-ordinator based at BP’s Aberdeen offices.
Elizabeth Padmos, a reservoir engineer at BP, has two sons Johan, 11, and James, 8, at the school and has been the school’s link ambassador for a number of years.
“The programme gives the children the chance to learn about careers they might not come across in daily life,” she said.
“The sooner we get children enthused about science the better and if they are excited about it at primary school, they are more likely to be interested in the sciences as subject choices when they get to secondary school.”