CITGO, LHS Teacher Partner For STEM Summer Education

LEMONT, IL — Several day camps in the area were brought STEM education, thanks to CITGO's STEM Talent Pipeline. The company said the Lemont Refinery brought STEM education to area day camps this summer in Crest Hill, Joliet, Lemont, Lockport and Romeoville.

Erin Horan, Lemont High School Physics teacher, partnered with CITGO to develop a practical curriculum that would showcase experiments that utilize everyday items and get campers interested in science. Leading an outreach team of college interns, together they were able to reach out to more than 500 students between the ages of 4 and 14.

"We decided to visit day camps this summer with interactive experiments as a way to highlight just how much fun science can really be," Horan said in a release.

During the camps, Horan talked about polymers and how slime is a petroleum product, and then had the students conduct experiments with the green slime they made from glue and shaving cream. The refinery said the responses from both campers and their counselors were so favorable that Horan is hoping to partner with CITGO again next summer and expand the curriculum.

"Whether we are empowering teachers, encouraging our employees to share their knowledge or reaching out with fun science experiments, as a member of the community CITGO is always looking for new ways to support STEM education," Dennis Willig, Vice President and General Manager of the CITGO Lemont Refinery, said in a release.

Photo provided by CITGO Lemont.