Girl Scouts visit IHS to learn about STEM careers

Girl Scouts Abigail Liu, left, and Nelle Liliedahl, center learn about wave theory from Cecilia Ramirez, right, a NeoGeo volunteer from the Houston Geological Society, during the first-ever Geoscience Day hosted by IHS in October.

Girl Scouts from the San Jacinto Council recently visited IHS to learn about careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

As part of the company's first-ever Geoscience Day and the Girl Scouts ToGetHerThere initiative, scouts visited four different workshops that included hands-on experiments designed to teach the fundamentals of geology and geophysics, lithology types, wave theory and well logging. The workshop also addressed reservoir attributes such as porosity and permeability, and fluids and traps.

"The girls had a great time, and we really enjoyed having them at our IHS Geoscience Day workshop," Mary Lou Castleman, senior quality assurance engineer at IHS, said in a press release. "They were incredibly enthusiastic, eager to learn and very polite young ladies. They embraced the curriculum and the hands-on activities, and our IHS colleagues had fun teaching such a bright group."

After the workshops, the concepts learned were applied to a drilling exercise where teams analyzed a 3-D reservoir model and make recommendations on where to drill based on their team's budget and its analysis of seismic information, well logs, maps and other vital data. The scouts also had the opportunity to search for a salt dome in a 3-D reservoir model using IHS Kingdom geophysical interpretation software, according to the release.

"We are so grateful for the support of IHS, who has provided an opportunity for our Girl Scouts to get a first-hand look at geology and geophysics and how they play a part in energy exploration," Emily Kremer, GSSJC's program manager responsible for STEM programs, said in the release. "Girls want to help make a difference in the world, and to get them there we need the support of companies like IHS to help us teach girls the value of STEM and the skills they will need to fill the roles of the future."

For more information about GSSJC's STEM programs, contact Kremer at ekremer@sjgs.org.