RESERVE — Seventh grader Aysa Clark said the experience was awesome.

“My classmate, Jeremiah Grainer, and I worked together to explore the different stations that taught us about the oil and gas industry,” Clark said.

Clark was one of many Fifth Ward middle school students who participated in the Mobile Oilfield Learning Unit, which was brought to the Reserve school by Ocean Star Offshore Energy Center Oct. 7.

The presentation included six self-contained learning centers that contain curriculum-based lessons in Earth Science. The education exposes students to careers in the oil and gas industry.

Fifth Ward is the second school in St. John the Baptist Parish that was visited by the mobile learning exhibit. Concentric Pipe and Edison Chouest sponsored the mobile lab’s visit to Fifth Ward Elementary.

Fifth grader Aiana Walker said she learned a lot about the types of products made from oil.

“I also learned about the sedimentation process and how the dirt and rocks from our rivers and oceans cover microscopic organisms creating pressure that starts the cycle that produces the oil that we drill,” Walker said.

The students watched a video prior to participating in the mobile lab that explained the progress of natural gas and oil formation.

Students were given booklets and pencils to take notes and write down answers to the different questions asked at the different units.

Sixth grader Gytzel Fiscal said the best part was the robotic arm that demonstrated how workers in the oil and gas industry work in conditions not suitable for humans by using robots to handle those assignments.