Development of didactic materials and activities on interdisciplinary bases: an example for oil and gas

Although the subject “Oil and Gas” is not usually present in the Secondary School Curriculum, it is of interest to students due to its obvious relationships with everyday life, and has been selected to design a series of teaching resources. Not only natural sciences such as Geology, Biology and Chemistry are embedded in the formation and accumulation of petroleum, but also con-stant references to History, Geography and Technology are present when linking together its discovery, exploitation, industrial-ization and use. The materials being produced cover three categories: a reference text to be available in printed and PDF file versions, a portfolio of teaching resources and a website. The first two are described and exemplified. The portfolio also in-cludes examples of published materials, which contain conceptual errors proposing their use to explore misconceptions if used at the beginning of the presentation of the subject in class, or to identify levels of understanding if used at the end.