By Esteban Fernandez, Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN — East Fairmont Middle School teacher Michael Leshko squats down at eye level with a contraption that contains boiling green mouthwash.
The mouthwash boils off some gases, which travel down a coil encased in glass. Leshko holds a bag of water over the piping, which cools the gas until it condenses again and drips out into a small plastic cup.
Leshko joked it was West Virginia’s grand tradition of making moonshine, but in the case of the oil and gas teachers workshop he took part in Thursday, the tradition took on an entirely different significance.
“What we’re doing is boiling and collecting the alcohol that is boiled off,” Leshko said. “This is exactly the same way gasoline or other products are made from crude oil or from the liquid form of natural gas that is pumped out of the ground in West Virginia.”
The Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia held its 7th annual Science Teacher Workshop in Morgantown on Thursday. More than 40 teachers from across the state received curriculum materials and hands-on experience with eight training units that are related to the state’s natural gas and oil industry.
