CMI welcomed youth to an outreach event at Colorado School of Mines
Cynthia Howell leads CMI education and outreach session for youth visiting Colorado School of Mines
CMI education and outreach ranges from youth to adult, with an emphasis on workforce development
Participants in a solar panel workshop look at exhibit in Geology Museum at Colorado School of MinesCMI offered a Solar Installation Workshop on December 12, including more than two dozen people from Red Rocks Community College and Colorado School of Mines. RRCC Instructor Troy Wanek (Solar Energy Environments owner and solar installer), shared details of a solar install on a government building. He led the group through the install process, including an outdoor walk-through of the solar panel exhibit, which ended at the indoor power connection to the phosphor and efficient lighting components of the Critical Materials Exhibit. The unique solar panel installation at the CSM Geology Museum began from the donation of a CdTe solar panel (from First Solar) and a CIGS panel (from EPRI; made by Solar Frontier). These two panels (CdTe and CIGS) were installed and now power a portion of the Critical Materials exhibit inside the museum, creating the first working solar photovoltaic module system at Mines.
Three teachers presented for CMI at the “Colorado Science Conference for Professional Development” on November 18. The conference venue hosts hands-on science education sessions for hundreds of teachers from across the state. http://coloradoscienceconference.org/
M-STEM brings together students, faculty and business from 20 states to strengthen understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) principles, especially relating to materials science, and to enhance K-20 technology education integration. At the M-STEM 2016, held in Tulsa OK, at the Tulsa Tech. Conference Center, November 6-8, two teachers presented their work with CMI and the CMI toolkit, then shared their designed lessons on Phosphors and Lithium Ion Batteries as they related to the tool kit. The audience of 15 teachers for the 2-hour presentation were invited to stop by the CMI vendor table to discuss further classroom applications.
Colorado School of Mines offered inner city sixth graders an introduction to college on July 7. The 160 sixth graders and 20 teachers and parents joined 10 REU student volunteers and six presenters at Mines. The tour included a welcome from CMI, chemistry show by Dr. Jim Horan and three 30-minute rotations to the museum and labs for six different groups. These included information from CMI about magnets and rare earths, a Geology Trail walk and a tour of the CMI exhibit in the Mines museum.
Colorado School of Mines offered a special CMI exhibit tour to invited Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) on campus. The REUs were asked to think about how current research they are conducting at Mines or their resident universities might contribute to advanced technologies and/or CMI research. Total: 18 participants.
CMI Director Alex King provided a guest lecture on Critical Materials and Clean Energy Technologies to 50 undergraduate students, graduate students, post-docs and faculty at CalTech, Feb. 24.
Colorado School of Mines delivered a successful National Engineers Week event for 150 high school students and 30 other guests. This included a tour of the CMI exhibit at the geology museum, Feb. 23.
To train and prepare professionals in the field, CMI offered a post doctoral/graduate student professional meeting at Colorado School of Mines, with 43 grad/postdoc presenters from five national laboratories and seven universities, Feb. 3-4.
Grand opening for museum exhibit dedicated to critical materials in the Geology Museum of the Colorado School of Mines, Feb. 4. This museum attracts more than 39,000 visitors per year. Additional information on this exhibit, as well as reports on how to create this type of exhibit, are available online.
Examples of other youth education and outreach at CMI partners:
My Brother's Keeper: CMI national laboratory partners offered education and outreach:
Ames Laboratory video Feb. 13, 2016, Ames Laboratory scientists and students hosted approximately 100 eighth-grade students from Iowa State University’s Science Bound program for ethnically diverse middle- and high-school students for a morning of interactive science activities.
