PROGRAM OVERVIEW
STUDENT ACTIVITIES
HANDS-ON LESSONS
EXPANDED INFORMATION
EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS
EDUCATOR ASSESSMENTS

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TEACHER TOOLKIT

Dominion Energy and NTC invite you to use these e-learning resources to teach your students about the importance of natural gas conservation and safety. The digital materials below are designed to get your students excited about understanding this important natural resource.

Want to know the best way to use the related e-books, games and other lessons to educate your class? Watch this short video and learn how to add The Clue that Burned Blue to your curriculum.


PROGRAM OVERVIEW  

Our live in-school theatrical programs are a great way to educate students about a wide variety of important topics. Theatre has the ability to capture imaginations and educate at the same time! This 25-minute show features two engaging actors performing a fun story that keeps kids laughing and learning.

The Clue that Burned Blue teaches viewers about the following educational points:

  • What natural gas is
  • The uses of natural gas
  • How to conserve natural gas
  • How to be safe around natural gas

During the show, your students will learn important lessons about natural gas conservation and safety. You can use the lessons and activities on this page to prolong the engagement for months to come.

Educational Standards  

We know your class time is extremely valuable. That’s why we ensure that all of our digital e-learning materials are aligned with state and national educational standards. It’s important that the Clue that Burned Blue program adds to your existing curriculum and keeps students on track with their ongoing learning.

See below for details about how each digital activity aligns with educational standards and corresponds with your state’s curricula.

Educational Standards

STUDENT ACTIVITIES  

The Clue that Burned Blue student activities page features games, educational lessons, downloadable PDFs, e-books, Power Play games and more! Access in the classroom or at home to learn more about natural gas conservation and safety and have fun joining the Clue that Burned Blue!

Student Activities Page

Student Playbook

This downloadable PDF features colorful artwork, entertaining games and activities and expanded information to complete your understanding of energy conservation and natural gas safety. Read on your own, with your class, or with friends and family and get to know the characters of The Clue that Burned Blue.

Explore the Student Playbook

E-book

This colorful, illustrated e-book is a great follow-up to the live program. Students can read to themselves or with others, and younger students can use the read-along option. The e-book takes your students on a new adventure and includes fun interactive activities throughout.

Access the K-2 E-bookAccess the 3-5 E-book

Graphic Novel

Young readers love comic books. They can be a great way to get reluctant readers to participate. The high-quality graphic novel gets students excited about continuing the journey they started with the live program. With fun artwork and entertaining characters, the graphic novel offers a page-turning experience.

Access the Graphic Novel

HANDS-ON LESSONS  

Your students can enhance what they learn from the program with these fun, hands-on lessons and experiments. These lessons can be done in the classroom or easily adapted for students to do at home with their families.

They’re a fun and educational way for students to learn with family members. The materials needed for these lessons are basic supplies that most people have at home. Follow up with your students to make sure they enjoyed and learned from these activities.

Lesson 1: Printable PDF

Cupcake Drilling

Objective
Students will model geologic drilling using layered cupcakes to learn about rocks below the Earth’s surface.

Purpose of Activity
Read or Listen, Identify Details, Apply Skills

21st Century Skills
Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Creativity

Cognitive Level
Strategic Thinking, Extended Thinking, Skills and Concepts

Class Time
60 minutes

Materials

  • White cake mix
  • Frosting
  • Food coloring
  • Foil baking cups (must be opaque)
  • Cupcake or muffin pan
  • Plastic cutlery
  • Clear plastic straws
  • Crayons, markers or colored pencils
  • Student sheet

Procedure

  1. Prepare layered cupcakes prior to beginning the lesson. See baking instructions below.
    • Mix the batter according to cake mix directions. Separate the batter into three bowls and add drops of food coloring to each bowl until desired color is achieved. Line a cupcake pan with foil baking cups. Spoon one tablespoon of each colored batter into the foil cup; order of color does not matter, and layers do not need to be smooth or uniform. Continue adding batter until the foil cup is half full. Bake according to cake mix instructions. Mix green (for grass) or brown (for soil) food coloring into the frosting. Once the cupcakes have baked and cooled, ice the top so that no part of the cupcake is showing
  2. Distribute a cupcake, plastic cutlery, three straws and student sheet to each student. Instruct students to not touch or eat the cupcake until told to do so.
  3. Explain that each cupcake represents a small part of the Earth.
  4. Ask the class what techniques could be used to determine what the cupcake looks like inside. Common answers include:
    • Scrape back the icing. This will show the cupcake’s surface, much like a bulldozer is used to expose rock, but it does not expose rocks at depth.
    • Cut or bite into the cupcake. This would work similarly to man-made outcrops (quarries, pits, roadcuts) or natural outcrops (river valleys). Unfortunately, outcrops are scarce, not always located where information is needed and limited in depth below the surface.
    • Use an “X-ray machine.” This is similar to ground-penetrating radar and seismic shockwaves that allow geologists to image the Earth below their feet. However, this approach does not tell geologists what type or age the rocks are, only how they are arranged.
    • Use the straw to drill into the cupcake. The straw can drill into the cupcake to reveal the layers below the surface. Geologists call these samples a core.
  5. Instruct students to use one straw to drill a hole directly into the center of their cupcake. Hold the straw upright and rotate it slowly until it reaches the bottom of the cupcake. Pull the straw out to reveal the colored layers of the core.
  6. Instruct students to draw the colored layers of their core on their student sheet.
  7. Using a clean straw, drill a second hole into the cupcake and draw the colored layers of the core on the student sheets. Repeat until all three cupcake cores are drilled and drawn.
  8. With a pencil, the students will connect the similar layers of the three cores to create a cross-section of their cupcake. Ask students to make an inference on what the interior of cupcake looks like based on their core observations.
  9. Use the plastic cutlery to cut the cupcake in half. Students should cut through their core holes in a straight line.
  10. Instruct students to draw the cupcake interior once it is cut open. Compare the student’s cross-section to the actual cupcake layers.

Critical Thinking Questions

What could you have done to make a more accurate cross-section?

  • Used more straws to take more core samples.

Why do geologists study the subsurface?

  • They can discover natural gas deposits, they can study rocks, they can see fossils, etc.

Adapted from: https://dev1.igs.indiana.edu/outreach/CupcakeDrilling.pdf

Lesson 2: Printable PDF

Geo Gelatin

Objective
Students will learn how animals and plants are buried in different types of rocks to eventually become fossils.

Purpose of Activity
Read or Listen, Identify Details, Apply Skills

21st Century Skills
Critical Thinking, Collaboration

Cognitive Level
Strategic Thinking, Extended Thinking, Skills and Concepts

Class Time
60 minutes

Materials

  • 9 oz. clear plastic cups
  • Red gelatin
  • Yellow gelatin
  • Blue gelatin
  • Gummy worms
  • Gummy dinosaurs
  • Gummy mammals
  • Student sheet

Procedure

Before the class:

Mix the gelatin according to the rapid gelling instructions on the box. Make sure the solution is cooled to near room temperature. Pour it into several plastic cups, filling 1/4 to 1/3 full. Drop one gummy worm in each cup and refrigerate until the gelatin is set. Prepare the yellow gelatin, again using the rapid gelling method. When it is near room temperature, take a dinosaur and lay it on top of the red layer. Pour yellow gelatin on top, filling 1/4 to 2/3 full. Refrigerate until set. Prepare blue gelatin and cool to room temperature. Drop the mammal on top of the yellow layer and add the blue gelatin to the top of the cups. Chill until set.

  1. Ask students if they know what a fossil is.
  2. Ask students where fossils come from. Once you have established that fossils are found in rocks, tell them they are going to learn about how fossils get into rocks.
  3. Discuss fossilization at an appropriate level for your class. Be sure to point out that it is not actually bone that is found in the fossil, because the bone has been replaced by minerals.
  4. Bring out one of the cups of gelatin. Explain to the students that this is a model of sedimentary rocks that contain fossils. Discuss the Law of Superposition by asking them which layer they think is the oldest and how they know this.
  5. Explain to the students that it is their job to figure out the name of each layer and the name of the fossils in each layer. Tell them that the class will go over how to determine the era and period name for the fossil after we have determined what fossils they are.
  6. Pass out the student sheet and read it over. Ask if there are any questions about the activity. Remind students not to eat the gelatin!
  7. Have the students break into groups and get their supplies.
  8. Walk around the class and make sure students are on task. Once most are done identifying the rock layers, gather everyone’s attention.
  9. Ask the students to name one of the fossils, using the chart in the student sheet to determine the time range in which the fossils existed. Then look up the time range on the geologic time scale to determine the era and period for each fossil.
  10. Have the students do this for the rest of the fossils.
  11. Wrap up the activity. Review what they have learned if time allows.

Critical Thinking Questions

Why might some layers in the cup be thicker than others?

  • This could represent the length of time that the geologic period lasted. If the layer is thinner, the period lasted less time – if it is thicker, it lasted longer.

Do you think the bottom layer of the cup represents a time that is older or younger than the ones on top?

  • The bottom layer represents the oldest layer. The other layers came after and buried the oldest layer deep underground.

Adapted from: https://igws.indiana.edu/outreach/additional/activities/Geo-Gelatin.pdf

EXPANDED INFORMATION & ADDITIONAL RESOURCES  

You’ve covered the basics of natural gas conservation and safety. If you really want to dig deep with your class, explore the expanded information and additional resources below.

These materials provide even more insight into the history, science, usage and importance of natural gas conservation and safety. There are also helpful links and tips.

Expanded Information 1:

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas that has been cooled to a liquid state, at about -260° Fahrenheit, for shipping and storage. The volume of natural gas in its liquid state is about 600 times smaller than its volume in its gaseous state. This process makes it possible to transport natural gas to places pipelines do not reach.

Liquefying natural gas is a way to move natural gas long distances when pipeline transport is not feasible. Markets that are too far away from producing regions to be connected directly to pipelines have access to natural gas because of LNG. In its compact liquid form, natural gas can be shipped in special tankers to terminals around the world. At these terminals, the LNG is returned to its gaseous state and transported by pipeline to distribution companies, industrial consumers and power plants.

LNG is loaded onto double-hulled ships, which are used for both safety and insulating purposes. Once the ship arrives at the receiving port, LNG is off-loaded into well-insulated storage tanks, and later regasified for entrance into a pipeline distribution network.

Source: https://www.energy.gov/fecm/liquefied-natural-gas-lng

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Virtual Speakers Bureau Program (Dominion Energy)

E-Smart Kids – Gas Pipeline Safety (Dominion Energy)

EDUCATOR ASSESSMENTS  

Follow-up, formative assessments for you to gauge the learning of your students are especially important with e-learning. Below are some suggestions for how you can assess your students’ performance quickly and effectively.

These assessments are easy for you and your students to complete and help ensure your class is getting the maximum educational value, retention and engagement from the related digital activities.

Elementary Educational Assessments Live Show Hands-on lessons Digital games E-book Graphic novel Interactive activities PDFs & Print materials
Ask students to reflect on the topic and draw their thoughts on paper X     X X    
Write one or two sentences identifying the main point X X   X X    
Think-pair-share X     X X    
One-question quiz     X     X  
Journal reflection X     X X    
Have students discuss three things they learned, two things they still want to learn, and one question they still have X     X X    
Hand in completed activity   X         X
Submit screenshot of completed activity     X     X  

EVALUATION

We take your feedback and suggestions very seriously. Hearing from educators with firsthand experience with our programs ensures that we continue to improve our digital resources, making them as beneficial as possible for you and your students.

Please complete this brief, two-minute evaluation to let us know what you think about the program. Enter the code you received on the half sheets from our actors or call us for your access code.

Thank you for your time and valuable input.

Natural gas,
make it last!

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