FEEDING THE MULTITUDES – HOW TO CONNECT WITH CUSTOMERS

By Elaine T. Cullen

Spokane Research Laboratory, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Spokane, Washington
“Munchkin miner” at Model Mine

ABSTRACT

Educating the public about the role of mining and

minerals can be a challenge. While it sometimes seems

that little is being done to counteract negative publicity,

there are many exciting things happening across the

country that are helping meet this challenge. This paper

will discuss existing minerals education activities and will

provide tips for developing successful programs for a

variety of groups, from students to industry to minerals

educators themselves. The paper will also include an

overview of the 9th annual National Minerals Education

Conference held in July 2000 in Spokane, WA.

INTRODUCTION

It is generally agreed in the mining industry that the

public does not have a good understanding of the role

played by minerals in society and that the public generally

has a negative opinion of the industry as a whole.

Companies agree in principle that education is an answer,

but often there is not a clear, comprehensive plan on how

to educate the public effectively. Practitioners argue

about where the focus should be; K-12 students, the

media, “opinion leaders,” the public, and the industry

itself have all been mentioned as the most appropriate

target. In fact, there are many excellent programs to

address each of these targets, but the most successful ones

answer a fairly simple question: “Why should these

people care about mining?” 

There have been many attempts to coalesce educational activities in the country currently supported by the

industry. The National Mining Association (NMA) has

taken a leadership role in this work, particularly with its

national Excellence in Education Awards that recognize

outstanding success and its support for national programs.

The GEM Committee of SME has been a catalyst for

many national efforts, such as the Minerals Coalition

booths at national science teachers conventions, as well as

local conventions planned and carried out by local

chapters. Mining associations have been excellent supporters, with activities as varied as the 6-day classes

taught in Arizona for K-12 teachers to the Taste of

Colorado and other fairs around the country to the Model

Mine project in the Pacific Northwest. Organizations like

the National Energy Foundation (NEF) and the Minerals

Information Institute (MII) play a very important role in

developing curricular materials and disseminating them to

educators. Government personnel at federal, state and

local levels have all organized, participated in, or supported educational activities. All of these are important pieces

in the puzzle. Before criticizing the industry for not doing

enough to combat its perceived negative image, it is

necessary to see exactly what is going on. Examples in

the following section illustrate the breadth and depth of

these efforts. They are not a comprehensive overview, but

rather should be understood as good ideas for effective

education.

Outside Activities and Festivals

Nearly every region with any kind of mining activity

has festivals that include education efforts by the minerals

industry.

• The Liberty Lake Water Festival. This annual festival

brings over 150 4th-grade students together at a near-by

lake to learn about water. Topics include what is an

aquifer, how lakes are formed, what water is used for, and

our dependence on water. Mining people set up gold

panning activities and explain how prospectors used water

to pan for gold, what specific gravity has to do with

panning, and how gold is used in modern society.

Government scientists, industry personnel, and educators

work together to make this week-long festival a reality.

• The Model Mine. This 2-day event takes place near an

aggregate operation. Stations are set up where groups of

students, parents, and teachers learn about such things as

uses of minerals, the rock cycle, extraction of minerals

from rocks, physical geology, careers in mining, mine

safety with an emphasis on abandoned mines, and finally,

mining and processing of aggregates. Students pass

through the stations and get a chance to climb on a big

haulage truck, take a bus ride through the pit itself, and

see how asphalt is produced. 

• Outside Education Days. The large number of natural

lakes and forests in the Pacific Northwest create the ideal

location for overnight campouts at which to teach about

the natural sciences. Local 6th graders have the
Old time mining camp at pioneer encampment

Science festival

opportunity to participate in some form of this activity,

which includes talks and demonstrations by earth and life

scientists. Students learn about habitats, forests, water,

and physical geology, and why the land looks the way it

does. Workbooks have been developed to encourage

active learning and include many hands-on discovery

activities. Scientists who help with these activities have

gathered an impressive number of “Did you know...”

facts to capture the interest of the students. In many

schools, the campouts are the culmination of a year-long

science program and are extremely popular with students,

teachers, and parents alike.

• Pioneer Encampment. Most of the western United

States was originally settled by people involved in natural

resource activities—mining, agriculture, and logging. The

resource-rich West attracted hundreds of thousands of

adventurers, creating a legacy of historic tales and

characters. The Pioneer Encampment, set up at a local

school, uses history to reconnect students to the area and

its natural resources heritage. Gold panning and a mining

camp are very popular attractions for students and adults. 

Educational Organizations

It is generally agreed in the minerals industry that K12 education is the area where most of the efforts in

outreach have been concentrated. There are many

successful organizations, including NEF and MII, the

loosely organized National Minerals Coalition, and GEM,

to name a few. There are many local groups as well,

including almost every mining association and their

education programs or foundations. Most regions have

some version of a Partners in Education program, where

businesses partner with local schools to assist in the

education process, and there are many state-wide

programs. For example, the Washington State Partnership

for Learning seeks to promote understanding and support

for raising education standards.

Another organization that should stand as a model for

the extractive industries is the Northwest Natural Resources Institute (NNRI), a nonprofit educational organization encompassing timber, mining, water, and agriculture. This collaborative group has sponsored and organized numerous educational activities in the region, all with

the purpose of expanding the public’s knowledge of the

role of natural resources in daily lives. NNRI sponsors

week-long teachers’ workshops, activities, and events at

the county fair centered on natural resources; presentations at the local Children’s Museum; and the highly successful Model Farm, Model Mine, Model Forest, and

Water festivals where students visit actual sites and learn

from professionals in these industries.

Career Days and Science Days

It is quite common for mining people to receive their

first invitation to speak about their work at their children’s

school career days. And it is equally common that these

people don’t know what to talk about. Career days can be

an excellent opportunity to educate and inform, but it is

critical that speakers remember to whom they are talking.

Kids have different interests than adults do, and they

usually want to hear such things as whether or not they

will get to use a computer in this job, how big the trucks

really are, or how much money they’ll make. They aren’t

too interested in technical details, but enjoy getting their

hands on things. Bringing “tools of the trade” to the

presentation can be very effective. These could include

mineral samples, a global positioning unit, or even, if

possible, a haulage truck. Many of the nation’s mining

schools are having a hard time attracting students. If the

industry waits until students are seniors in high school,

they may have lost the opportunity to convince these

students that careers in mining can be fun and profitable,

with a lot of opportunities to travel the world. 

Science fairs are quite common in the U.S. school

system. While they do a great job of focusing students’

efforts, at least for a short time, on science, the children

who take home the prizes are those who usually have

access to computers, materials, and, unfortunately, scientifically literate parents. Children from disadvantaged

families rarely have the resources or support to compete.

Some areas have decided, therefore, to put on science
Teachers’ workshops

festivals, where scientists are brought in to lead students

through a variety of science adventures tailored to specific

age levels. Hands-on activities such as making a rock and

mineral collection, extracting copper from ore, or learning

what math has to do with surveying get kids excited about

doing science, regardless of their economic situations.

With the entire school turned into an impromptu science

lab for the day, kids choose from among dozens of science

adventures and have fun while learning.

Teacher Education

Many areas of the country sponsor teachers’ workshops during the summer. These multiday workshops

generally offer the re-certification credits or continuing

education credits that teachers are required to earn during

their careers and expose teachers at K-12 levels to a

variety of hands-on earth science activities that can be

taken back to the classroom. Because doing hands-on

science requires materials, these workshops usually

include a lot of free classroom materials, from rock and

mineral samples to posters, videos, books, and testing

equipment. This is one of the areas of education that the

industry is doing right, if responses to the workshops can

be used as an evaluative tool. After being guided through

activities with experienced people, many teachers feel

much more comfortable in planning similar activities for

their own classrooms.

Teachers’ workshops will likely continue to play an

important part in the minerals education field. Across the

country, business and academia alike are calling for

tougher standards for education. Students are being held

responsible for learning. Mandatory graduation standards

are being developed in most states, and teachers are

struggling to find ways to prepare their students to meet

them. Earth and physical science teachers are asking for

help, and the minerals industry is responding with its

workshops. In spite of the popularity of these events,

how-ever, it is still remedial education. The tougher battle

will be fought in changing the way teachers are prepared

at the university level. This is a challenge that has not yet

been addressed by the minerals or natural resources

industries.

NATIONAL MINERALS EDUCATION CONFERENCE

Ten years ago, a group of concerned industry people

put together a plan to begin to draw together the many

excellent educational activities that were happening

around the country. It was believed that there would be a

definite benefit in gathering together these practitioners

and allowing them the time and opportunity to share ideas,

brainstorm solutions, and educate each other on what they

were doing. The 1991 National Minerals Education Conference (NMEC) was held in Salt Lake City, and for the

first time, minerals educators came together to share

resources, problems, and plans. NMEC has grown and

evolved over the years. It was decided, for example, that

it would be a good thing to have a minimum number of

teachers to provide feedback on new ideas and help guide

future planning. Participation has fluctuated, as the industry moved through tough times, with numbers ranging

from 70 to 140. The commitment to use this venue to

communicate, share, and learn, however, has remained

strong.

The 9th Annual Minerals Education Conference was

held in Spokane in July 2000 and is an example of what is

successful about this type of gathering. A planning team

was formed in December with the Spokane Research

Laboratory of the National Institute for Occupational

Safety and Health and the Northwest Mining Association

taking lead roles. A group of team leaders was put

together to handle such things as fund raising, publicity,

program, logistics, tours, door prizes, and exhibits. Faceto-face meetings were kept to a minimum, but the Internet

was heavily used to communicate between and among the

teams. Several goals were established.

• The conference would be self-supporting...no red ink.

• A strong program with multiple tracks was expected to

attract participants.

• The conference would be international to mirror the

global nature of the industry.

• No more than 25% of the participants would be

teachers. Industry, higher education, government, and

associations were the primary targets.

• The conference would include representatives from as

many of the different segments of the mining industry as

possible.

• The conference would be fun, both for those who put it

on and for those who attended.
NRMC tour

NMEC dinner cruise

The Spokane conference was similar to several of the

preceding minerals education conferences in that it offered many options for attendees. These included a hands-on

activity-based day for educators and those who wanted to

learn more about experiential learning; a “Living

Catalogue of Resources” for those new to minerals

education who were looking for ideas, sources of

materials, or other minerals education providers; and

information for the old pros, those people who had been

involved in this type of education for some time and were

interested in more strategic issues. The Spokane

conference also included tours of local mines, an all-day

“Geology of the Northwest” tour, and an all-day tour

entitled “An Irreverent Look at the History of Mining in

the West.” Those participants who did not go on a tour

were given the opportunity to see what’s new and cool in

minerals education at roundtable sessions. Other sessions

dealt with effective environmental education and with

educating the community. 

The Spokane conference was an outstanding success.

With nearly 130 attendees, the conference was larger than

anticipated, and both new and experienced people

participated. In addition, the planning team learned some

very important lessons.

• Make sure there is something for everyone. Passion is

the glue that holds minerals education together, but

individuals have different needs and interests, so prepare a

buffet, not a one-course meal.

• Involve as many people as possible. This conference

had over 70 speakers or presenters. Many of them

participated in the 16 round table sessions or in the 17

Living Catalogue sessions, but it is much easier for people

to commit to attending if they have an active part in the

production.

• Plan! A well-organized, responsible team will make it

much easier to succeed and will ensure that the details are

taken care of before they become problems. Giving many

people a small piece of the responsibility also ensures that

no one is overwhelmed. 

• Advertise. The people involved in minerals education

often do it in a volunteer capacity, rather than as a formal

part of their job. These people will not necessarily find

out about the conference if creative means to get

information have not been used. Advertise early and often

and employ a wide range of communication tools.

• Include fun activities. These are team-building

exercises and can include such things as evening cruises, a

barbecue in the park, or even enough time to play. If a

shared passion for minerals education is the glue that

holds this effort together, then allowing time for that glue

to set up and for coalitions to build is a crucial part of the

conference.

• It is much easier to raise money if the overall amount

is broken down into “sponsorable events,” such as a

breakfast, a tour bus, box lunches for the tours, or a hosted

reception. Sponsors should be visibly and repeatedly

thanked for their support with signs and announcements.

• It will be much simpler for succeeding groups to put a

minerals education conference together if there is a repository of information from former conferences. Contact

lists, presenter lists, donor lists, programs, etc., all provide

very valuable information to a new team that is basically

starting out cold.

• Extras, such as door prizes and exhibits of what’s

available, make the conference much more special. An

obvious group of potential exhibitors would be the

winners of the National Mining Association’s Excellence

in Education Awards. These people are justifiably proud

of their efforts and can provide excellent ideas to other

participants. 

NMEC has changed and grown over the years, but it

remains the only primary opportunity for people involved

in minerals education to come together to discuss their

successes and challenges, to meet others involved in

similar work, to re-energize their efforts, and to get new

ideas about how to improve their programs. There are

many teachers workshops every year, but only one

conference for those who teach the teachers. This is an
effort that has shown its usefulness to the industry, and

one that deserves support.

CONCLUSION

Educating the public can be a daunting task. The

public has many faces, from school-age children to elected

officials, and each segment of the population requires its

own targeted message. There are currently many excellent outreach or education programs in the country with

dedicated individuals working to enlighten the masses.

Government agencies such as USGS, NIOSH, and

MSHA; mining associations such as the National Mining

Association, Northwest Mining Association and Arizona

Mining Association; societies such as SME, GEM, and the

Mining and Metallurgical Society of America; and

nonprofit organizations such as NNRI, NEF, and MII are

all working to overcome deep misunderstandings about

the mining industry. National programs like the National

Science Teachers Association conventions and the

National Minerals Education Conference allow access to

key individuals, as well as large numbers of science

educators, and provide forums for discussing issues and

getting information into the hands of those who need it.

Regardless of the individual target or the specific

message, whether warning children of the dangers of

abandoned mines or assisting teachers in building an earth

science curriculum, the question “Why should they care?”

must be answered. Once a personal connection to minerals, rocks, and mining has been established, customers

will be much more open to learning and much less willing

to listen to negative propaganda about mining. This is a

simple concept, but one that will affect the future of this

industry.