Education and Outreach
CMI at Mines offers webinars about critical materials. They are free with advance registration. Please sign up to obtain a link to join.
Upcoming webinars
Wednesday, June 19, 2019, Noon MT
“Recycling of Critical Elements from Lithium Ion Batteries“
Presented by Luis Diaz Aldana, Idaho National Laboratory
Past presentations
CMI has offered more than 30 webinars. Most were open to the public.
Public webinars are available for viewing here.
Closed webinars can be viewed by CMI team members and affiliates using a Member login.
To learn how to become a CMI partner, please review Working with CMI.
Education Partner Courses
The CMI Team includes six education members. The CMI Education and Outreach staff reviewed the courses these colleges and universities offer, and created an inventory of those related to critical materials and rare earth elements. The list of courses taught by CMI Team members is available by university and grouped by topic and is available here.
On February 19, 2019 in celebration of National Engineers Week, prospective students toured the Center for SPACE lab and the critical materials exhibit at the Mines Geology Museum. In the afternoon Mines alumni from Lockheed Martin came to campus to mentor prospective students about the benefits of a STEM degree from Mines and about the exciting research going on in the materials and aerospace industries.
Teachers Take Resources and knowledge Back to the Classroom: On August 10th and 11th, CMI hosted a teacher workshop to deliver lessons to ten teacher attendees centered around the CMI outreach tool kit. An evening session at the CSM geology museum was guided by student side, Vivian Johnson, who skillfully guided teachers through the CMI exhibit.
The workshop continued on the 11th where lessons that were developed and delivered by two past teacher researchers and two teachers who initially vetted the tool kit, kept the audience engaged for the day. The workshop started out with introductory lessons in the geology and mining of materials given by Mr. Mark Leatherman; followed by a lesson in phosphors and energy efficient lighting, by Dr. Danielle Ladd and finally a lesson in engineering materials and recycling, by Mr. Matt Brown. Teachers walked away with new knowledge of critical materials and resources for deploying lessons in their classroom this year.
The final cap of the workshop included an overview of how to contact CMI for school visits; museum visit opportunities and the online tool kit check out process at the museum.
On February 16, 2018, Lockheed Martin employees teamed up with Mines to mentor prospective students who are interested in STEM careers and the aerospace industry. The day started with lab tours and demonstrations hosted by the Critical Materials Institute, the Center for Space Resources, the Geology Museum and the Colorado Fuel Cell Center. The highlight of the event was the mentoring luncheon where 28 Lockheed Martin engineers who are Mines alums, joined 20 Mines students and 40 Colorado high school students. Lockheed staff rotated between the student tables to share “a day in the life of an engineer” and answer questions while addressing the many interesting career opportunities available.
Photos: General Research Lab Tours and Mentorship Lunch | Lockheed Martin at Mines
The Colorado School of Mines Mining Competition Team (MCT) hosted an evening at the museum featuring the CMI exhibit on November 29, 2017. The event opened with welcoming remarks from Mining Department Head Pricilla Nelson and CMI’s Deputy Director, Rod Eggert. The purpose of the event was the raise funds for the MCT competition in London in the spring. Attendees were treated to a culinary fair, a silent auction, a string trio and CMI exhibit tours.
CMI at the Colorado Science Conference for Professional Development
On Friday, November 17, 2017, Ben Geller, CMI’s teacher researcher, presented a science lesson on “Batteries: From Cell Phones to Cars and Tiny Houses, Exploring the Life Cycle of Batteries”. His room was filled with over 30 teachers from throughout Colorado eager to learn about batteries and glean any information ready for the classroom. Ben highlighted CMI, his summer research opportunity and the CMI Outreach Toolkit for which he designed his Lithium for Energy Storage lesson (part of the days overall presentation) to be added to the CMI website.
About the Conference:
The Colorado Science Conference for Professional Development is a one-day conference that provides professional development regarding science content, education strategy, and research to over 900 educators from throughout the state.
It is geared towards anyone interested in science education, including K-12 teachers, college instructors, informal educators, administrators, pre-service teachers, and retired teachers. It also provides 5 hours of re-licensure credit. It features presentations regarding the science content areas of biology, chemistry, earth and space science, physics, and environmental science within the education settings of Early Childhood Education, K-12, College, and Informal Education.
21st Century Energy Transition Symposium 2017
The Colorado State University Energy Institute and the School of Global Environmental Sustainability hosted the 21st Century Energy Transition Symposium on October 30-31, 2017. Building on last year’s symposium which featured broader topics around energy, the 2017 symposium focused on “Tackling, Solving and Addressing Energy’s Grand Challenges.” Featured talks included “Women in energy” and a panel with three governors’ (Colorado, Nevada, Wyoming) discussing their plan to unite in developing infrastructures and deploying more renewable energy. The CMI booth dispersed information to over 500 attendees (of close to a 1,000) in the two day affair.
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) at Colorado School of Mines is the largest professional organization on campus and the largest collegiate SWE section in the nation. Every Wednesday throughout the academic year it provides professional development opportunities where various engineering feats and problems are shared with the eager group. On September 27, 2017, Dr. Rod Eggert presented the work of the Critical Materials Institute as it relates to energy and the advanced high tech needs of everyday life and the future. With every engineering field represented in the room, the talk was well received by these future leaders.
July 25, 2017. Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) students hosted by REMRSEC enjoyed a lunch and learn about CMI and critical materials presented by Rod Eggert. Cynthia Howell welcomed the students and REU Director and Physics Engineering Professor Chuck Stone.
June 28, 2017. Students from the Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST), College View campus, spent the morning at Mines hosted by the Critical Materials Institute (CMI). The field trip included a tour of the Geology Museum and the CMI exhibit, a walking tour of campus and an informational hike of the Mines Geology Trail. Hands-on exhibits were featured at the Tiny House where they learned about solar technology, energy efficiency, sustainability, and design challenges.
June 1, 2017. A group of middle and high school students from the Southern Ute Tribe visited the Critical Materials Exhibit in the Geology Museum. A CMI overview was given followed by hands-on demonstrations engaging all in attendance.
Over sixty high school seniors and their parents, representing more than thirty-eight schools from the Denver Metro area, came to Mines on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 to celebrate National Engineers Week. The event was sponsored by Lockheed Martin (LM) and the Critical Materials Institute. Students were engaged in engineering feats, ideas and dialog. They enjoyed a close up look at the Center for Space Resources, the Geology Museum and the Critical Materials Institute, with hands-on activities and interactive exhibits. During a specially designed mentoring luncheon, Mines President Paul Johnson welcomed the students and parents, then the LM engineers and Mines seniors and graduate students shared their engineering experiences. The room was electric as the attending high school students absorbed information about the life of practicing engineers from the host engineer and Mines teams.
Critical Materials Exhibit Goes Green
A 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) in late 2015-early 2106. These two panels (CdTe and CIGS) are now installed and powering a portion of the Critical Materials exhibit inside the museum, making this the first solar photovoltaic module system at Mines. Visitors see the panels as they enter the museum. The installation was enabled by a partnership between Colorado School of Mines and Red Rocks Community College (RRCC).
A solar installation workshop was hosted by CMI, on Monday December 12, 2016. Red Rocks Community College (RRCC) instructor, Mr Troy Wanek (Solar Energy Environments owner) led the audience through the entire installation process and shared the ins and outs of working on a government building. RRCC students from his class were joined by Mines students and professors. The presentation was followed by a walk-through of the solar exhibit.
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Cynthia Howell
Research Faculty, Energy Education Specialist
Critical Materials Institute
Office: Engineering Hall Room 129
Phone: 303-273-3651
Email: chowell@mines.edu