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 Innovation Hub
Office: Engineering Hall Room 129
Phone: 303-273-3651
Email: chowell@mines.edu