Academy of the Sacred Heart:
Owen with his niece Grace Gerig at a map presentation at Sacred Heart Academy. 
The picture above shows me with the only 5 students who wore glasses. I asked them to come up front, then i asked the class to tell me waht was similar about the 6 of us--eventually they noticed we all had glasses on. "Glasses used to be made out of glass, but when more children started to wear them, engineers figured out how to make them out of plastic. Plastic glasses are lighter and wont break like glass glasses." Then i asked them what plastic was made of--- oil. " So we really should not call them glasses anymore, they should be called oilies-- everyone wearing oilies please go sit down." This is my routine about other uses of oil-- their shoes are made of oil, their nylon coats are made of oil, their glasses are made of oil, their MardiGras beads are made of oil, their hair berrets are made of oil... Oil is not just for cars! The New Orleans Geological Society invited me to make a presentation at their local schools and Art Johnsohn, President and Bill Whiting President-Elect watched me at 4 presentations at 3 schools in New Orleans on February 1st--Sacred Heart Academy, McGehee School and Newamn school for a total of 452 3rd thru 9th grades. New Orleans is starting the "Maps in Schools" project and just wanted to see how we did it. Now they know. They have an interesting twist in that Tulane University now has a community service requirement for graduation that includes 60 hours of community service in their major. So starting in the Fall 2008 Tulane geology students will be making these presentations-- the New Orleans Geological Society will have their name on the framed maps. Members who donate to the "Maps in Schools" project will know their money is being well spent, the students are getting experience at presentations and building their confidence, the students of New Orleans will get the benefit of a geologist to come into their schools. So many schools in New Orleans will be getting the maps in short amount of time. This is a great win, win, win, win situation and something the New Orleans Geological Society should be proud. Owen Hopkins, Geologist |