Many programs come under the auspices of the SME Foundation. Some are directed at outreach, like the GEM and Mii programs. Two others focus directly on professional development: ABET and Professional Engineering Licensure. ABET accreditation for a university program is the first step in ensuring that students are taught the basic principles and learn specific skills in their chosen profession - a first and critical step in professional development. We rely on SME's ABET accreditation committee to hold our university programs in mining and mineral processing engineering to high standards, checking that faculty are in place to teach the rigorous curriculum, and making sure that the outcome is a graduating class with well-qualified young men and women.

As these new graduates continue in their professional development and take leadership roles, they may seek professional licensure. SME's professional engineering exam committee develops the exams for mining and mineral processing licensure (M/MP P.E.). An annual review course for the examination is given by other SME professionals. For a review of the PE course and exam and a heads-up on the future of professional licensure, you'll want to read the article in the July 2009 Mining Engineering, by Professor Raj Ramani.

These programs are critical to the professional development of many of our members and have costs associated with them. Annual fundraising appeals often fall short. Therefore it is critical that these programs be endowed. The SMEF will shortly be announcing its goals in these two areas and will be seeking donations from individuals and corporations that hire new graduates from the ABET-accredited programs and those that require engineers with professional registration credentials on their staffs. Funding will be solicited as a five-year pledge - part of an overall campaign to increase the SMEF endowment.

These are two critical areas that must be funded for the benefit of the profession. If these are areas that directly impact your bottom line, please consider contributing to their continued success.

Barbara J. Arnold, PhD, PE
Vice President, SMEF

 

As the fiscal year comes to a close many of the SME Foundation programs are in need of donations to cover operating costs for fiscal year 2010. Your support is essential to the success of programs such as PE, ABET, GEM and Mii. SMEF is so appreciative of its supporters and want to show its support through donor recognition. The New 1k Club promotes and encourages support and growth of the programs under the Foundation umbrella. Individual donors who give $1,000 or more will be recognized as 1k Club Members and will receive:

• Special recognition in the Mining Engineering Magazine (March Issue)
• Special recognition at the annual SME Foundation Dinner (February each year)
• And as a small token of our enormous gratitude, the first of four marble coasters (a set that will be given out and completed over the next four years). Each additional $1,000 donation will be recognized with the next coaster in the set. These beautiful coasters, each stamped with a different element from the periodic chart, will be collector's items for our SMEF supporters.

This recognition program will run 2010 through 2013. If you would like the entire set at once, you may acquire it by donating a lump sum of $4,000 to the SMEF programs. Please call AnnMarie Estrada, Foundation Development, 303-948-4224 if you have any questions.

To be one of the first 1k Club members, please donate $1,000 to the SME Foundation. As always, you get to choose how your donation is used by selecting which bucket your donation goes into.

Free literature, rocks, minerals, videotapes and other valuable earth science educational materials will be distributed to 1,200 to 1,500 teachers at each of three 2010 regional National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Conferences. Teachers will stand in line to gather mineral kits, complimentary materials and have their questions answered by volunteers from the minerals industry, as well as learn how important minerals are to their everyday lives.

The highlight of this experience for the teachers is the fact that each teacher will be given a collection of rocks, minerals and construction materials that are provided by SME members from their respective mining and quarrying operations. These collections are accompanied by appropriate scientific background information for each substance and a brief description of its importance and use. Whereas many of us in the mining and minerals industries are used to costs of individual items or unit of supplies in the thousands of dollars or more, teachers often spend personal funds to purchase classroom supplies. Hence, the rock, mineral and construction material samples that the GEM booth provides, while small in cost to the industry, are enormous in value to a classroom teacher. Furthermore, many teachers have little idea how or where to get such samples! Thus, the booth very successfully meets a variety of needs.

The GEM Committee Liaison will coordinate exhibit arrangements and act as a liaison between the volunteer committees and the NSTA Staff. The local volunteer committees play a key role in producing the exhibits. Planning for the exhibits begins seven to eight months before the events take place. This committee arranges for mineral/material samples and makes up the kits, classroom materials, and other teaching support materials that can be gathered in the region. In addition, they assemble the volunteers needed to staff the 10' x 20' exhibit. Approximately 30 volunteers are involved at each location. Student chapters of SME have become an integral part of the preparation for and operation of these booths during the past few years. This fall, student chapters located near the regional conference locations are "gearing up" to bag samples and meet teachers in the booths.

This year for the first time two of the NSTA Conferences will be chaired by SME Student Chapters! The October 28-30th Kansas City NSTA will be chaired by University of Missouri Science & Technology, led by Administrative Assistant Barbara A. Robertson. The November 11-13th Baltimore NSTA will be chaired by the SME Student Chapter of Penn State, guided by Dr. Larry Grayson. The third regional conference site is Nashville, Tennessee, and Bob Freas, who has participated in several NSTA Conferences, has volunteered to organize a committee for the December 2-4 conference.

In order to support these volunteer groups, this article serves as a call to industry folks to make contact with Barbara and Larry to finalize plans to send samples to these groups to be bagged and prepared for give away. Typically, two or three five-gallon-sized plastic buckets of 1.5" to 0.5" size samples provide enough pieces to fill 1,400 small bags of that particular mineral, rock, construction material or coal. UPS happily ships these buckets! In addition to the samples that are available regionally for each NSTA meeting site, samples like halite, and other crystalline minerals, and rocks such as pumice are always good to add to the "local" materials.

Educating the public regarding the mineral wealth of our nation and world is a primary concern of the GEM committee and by extension SME. If we don't do it, who will? Most likely someone with misinformation and a negative attitude toward our industry will be happy to do that job for us. So, we ask you all to step up and help each other to educate the teachers and by extension the students of our nation.

The SME Professional Engineers Exam Committee prepares problems for the Mining & Mineral Processing engineering examination for licensure as a Professional Engineer. The exam consists of 80 multiple-choice questions and is offered once each year in October. The committee sends problems and solutions to NCEES (the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying), which formats the exam and transmits it to the individual jurisdictions for administration. The 2009 Mining and Mineral Processing PE Exam was taken by 71 examinees, a significant increase over recent years. The pass rate was 73 percent for first time takers and 38 percent for repeat takers.

The 2009 exam was the first exam under the new specification completed in 2008. Following the exam, a cut-score panel was assembled by SME. This panel met in Denver on December 5 and 6, 2009. It was composed of a diverse group of 14 licensed mining and mineral processing engineers who were not involved in creating the exam. It was their job, under the direction of NCEES and its psychometrician, to determine the cut-score needed to pass the new exam. This is a very important function, as it affects pass rates for all future exams. Observers from the NCEES Committee for Examinations for Professional Engineers (EPE) and senior members of the SME PE Exam Committee observed the process and collectively approved a specified cut-score after reviewing the detailed report of the NCEES psychometrician.

As part of the PAKS process, a new study guide was developed. This SME book, Study Guide for the Professional Licensure of Mining and Mineral Processing Engineers, Seventh Edition, was completed by members of the PE Exam Committee in 2008 and accepted by NCEES. It includes the new exam specification and a new, 80-question sample examination to assist engineers studying for the PE exam. It is for sale through SME customer service.

This year's Review Course will be held in Denver from September 11 - 15, 2010. Timothy A. Ross, PE, SME is the 2010 Chair of the PE Exam Committee. R. Karl Zipf, Jr., PE, PhD, SME is the new chair-elect. The PE Exam Committee currently has 39 SME members. All are licensed professional engineers with 24 from industry and private practice, seven from academia, and eight from government agencies. The committee's work is vital in maintaining the availability of the PE Exam to mining and mineral processing engineers. Approximately 30 percent of the SME members have PE licenses.

The mission of the Mineral Information Institute (Mii) is to provide teaching materials that fill the gaps and omissions that exist in textbooks, and to counteract biased notions about the mining industry which dwell on environmental damage rather than reclamation successes and new preventive technologies.

Concerned about the accuracy and balance of science education materials at the pre-college level, members of SME formed a special committee in 1975 known as the Mineral Information Committee, the precursor to Mii. In 1980 the Mineral Information Institute was incorporated (separately from SME), and has been serving the K-12 community with 30 years of excellence. In 2008, Mii merged with the SME Foundation, coming full circle and expanding SME's college and professional focus to include pre-college students.

The Mineral Information Institute is dedicated to improving public awareness of the importance of our mineral resources through education. Supported by corporations, foundations, scientific associations and individuals from across the nation, Mii distributes materials to educators to supplement existing curricula. Each year, approximately 20,000 teachers nationwide receive Mii materials at no cost to them or their schools. The colorful, high-quality Teacher Helper packets provided by Mii contain integrated, interdisciplinary classroom materials, activity guides and posters that teach how minerals benefit our health, safety and quality of life.

One of Mii's first projects was cooperating with the author of a high school environmental textbook, Global Science: Energy, Resources, Environment, which is now in its seventh edition. This textbook integrates the science disciplines from the Earth, life and physical sciences, as well as chemistry and physics, into one cohesive study of our Earth and its resources.

We have created numerous materials that are used nationwide for company and association outreach programs. The Blue Marble Periodic Chart poster, Rock Odyssey DVD package, Minerals In Your World reference CD, and the Go-Kit for Classroom Speakers are among the most popular and effective teaching tools. Our newest outreach product, Laminated Rock & Mineral Bookmark Sets, is perfect for both the classroom and as giveaways for Visitors Day at your facilities. Mii also offers gold panning supplies, which provide a unique classroom learning experience.

The Mii Web site - www.mii.org - includes Homework Help for Students featuring common rocks and minerals, where they are found in the world and their everyday uses, as well as photographs which can be downloaded for reports. Teacher Pages, curriculum support materials and classroom activities can also be downloaded for free. We have developed a section on the web site to present mining's environmental success stories. This section, featuring colorful "before & after" photographs, features more than 300 examples of companies whose reclamation activities represent exemplary environmental achievements. These stories will do much to further the public awareness of our mineral resources and the environmentally responsible companies that produce them. The Mii web site is averaging 1.7 million hits and 77,000 visitors each month.

Mii, supported completely by donations, exists because individuals and companies believe that natural resource education is critical to sustain modern societies. The Institute believes that by helping educate our youth, they will make wise decisions in the future about the Earth's natural resources. By developing an understanding of the minerals industry, Mii can create an acceptance and an appreciation for the role of mining and minerals development in today's world.

To make a donation, please visit www.smenet.org/foundation/foundationcontributions/.

On July 24th SME staff and 17 volunteers will begin the 14 day event that the Boy Scouts of America call The Jamboree. Forty thousand boy scouts and their leaders will converge on Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia to celebrate 100 years of Scouting. SME will have a booth in the National Exhibit area and will spend two weeks talking to the scouts about the importance of mining in the products they use on a daily basis, as well as sharing the phases of opening a mining operation, from exploration to reclamation and careers in the mining and minerals industries. SMEF would like to thank the following sponsors for their complete funding of this event: Alpha Natural Resources Inc., Rio Tinto Exploration, Rio Tinto Kennecott Utah Copper Corp. and Vulcan Materials Company. A complete follow-up to this outreach effort will be in the September issue of Mining Engineering Magazine and in our next newsletter.

Stay tuned for more information,

AnnMarie Estrada