CMI Outreach 2024

CMI plans education and outreach activities throughout the year, ranging from youth to adult, with an emphasis on workforce development.

April-May-June

• CMI Education and Workforce Development lead Cynthia Howell, Colorado School of Mines, is planning the Rocky Mountain Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (RM-MESA) Jamboree, to be April 27 at Colorado School of Mines. 
• The CMI Leadership Academy planned the second Annual CMI Short Course on Rare Earth Elements. "Rare Earth Elements (REEs): Mine to Magnet & Market," which was held April 11, 2024, at Colorado School of Mines.
• The CMI Meeting at Mines showcased the work of students and early career researchers, with more than 100 people attending the meeting, which included 13 oral presentations and 18 poster presentations, as well as several presentations by CMI leadership and guests from the U.S. Department of Energy and Colorado School of Mines. The meeting included the first CMI partner meet-and-greet with students and post-docs, with half a dozen members of industry meeting with participants in small groups, to share information about the company and opportunities for collaboration and/or employment. Following the meeting, participants could participate in optional tours, including to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Kroll Institute of Extractive Metallurgy Labs, and the Mines Geology Museum and CMI Exhibit.

  

   

• For the community event known as “My Amazing Future” (MAF) on April 4 at Idaho National Laboratory, Yuan-Yuan Lee and Mike Severson taught a course called “Simulation for All” for eighth grade girls from schools throughout the greater Eastern Idaho area. They demonstrated the value of building simulation models to solve complex, real-world problems. As part of the lesson, students learned about critical materials and their importance to clean energy deployment. A simulation model analyzing critical material supply chains was demonstrated to students with a hands-on simulation component. Students were able to ‘drive’ the model and run different simulations to see how critical materials and their supply chains would be affected by clean energy deployment. Students also had the opportunity to get hands on experience with critical material containing products such as permanent magnets, hard disk drives, cell phones, and more as part of the CMI education toolkit. 

  

   

• CMI Education and Workforce Development intern Nirio Mendoza provided a tour of the CMI exhibit in the Mines Museum of Earth Science at the Colorado School of Mines for visitors from the American Geosciences Institute. 

• STEM Push: NSF supported STEM Push “community of learning” event/ spring convening. CMI’s Education Workforce Development team of Cynthia Howell and Danielle Ladd traveled to Pittsburgh March 19-22 to represent CMI and Rocky Mountain MESA at a STEM Push national convening and learning community meeting/conference.  They joined STEM program leaders from throughout the nation including Arizona, California and Oregon MESA programs and the NY Arthur Ashe Institute of Health, American Museum of Natural History,  Women in Natural Sciences programs and more. The CMI team is involved in a national improvement cycle studies on  “Engaging Admissions” and “Communicating  Science” (student science skill attainment). The results of the projects benefit the relationship between universities and incoming STEM students and improve student communication of their STEM skills to university Admissions departments. 

January-February-March

• National Engineers Week: CMI Education and Workforce Development staff at Colorado School of Mines collaborated with teachers to bring educational activities based on CMI research into classrooms, through collaboration with the Rocky Mountain Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement (Rocky Mountain MESA), which is a middle and high school program for underrepresented students. On February 15, the CMI Team member Argonne National Laboratory hosted its 22nd annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (IGED). The event gave 100 eighth-grade girls a unique opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at Argonne, including touring labs and facilities, talking to scientists and engineers, and participating in hands-on activities.
• CMI webinars are offered nearly monthly, and most are recorded. CMI webinars in 2024 include CMI researchers: Link to CMI webinars

CMI Outreach 2023

For further information please contact:
Cynthia Howell
Research Faculty, Education, Training and Outreach
Phone: 303-273-3651