WIM Education Foundation

    Women in Mining  

The WIM Education Foundation is a non-profit educational organization under the Internal Revenue Service 501(c)3 guidelines that receives funding through grants and tax-deductible individual gifts.  Its mission is as follows:

To educate students, teachers and the general public about the importance of minerals;

To develop and distribute mineral educational material;

To obtain funding for other projects that will carry out this mission;

To partner with groups to further mutual education goals;

To assist Women In Mining chapters in furthering education.

This mission is accomplished through the distribution of classroom activities and information to teachers and hands-on activities training in workshops.  The distribution is accomplished through direct mailing, booths at meetings workshops, and the Internet. Teachers who do not have Internet access can request free educational packets from the WIM Education Foundation by sending their request on school letterhead.

The WIM Education Foundation also works with other mineral groups as a member of the Minerals Education Coalition.  The coalition, a group of businesses and organizations interested in minerals education, that sponsor booths at regional National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) meetings, where mineral samples and free education material are distributed. During workshops conducted by WIM, the participants are provided hands-on activities, games and information about how the minerals being distributed in the booth are used in the home, business, community and nation.

Many Women in Mining (WIM) members were involved in mineral education at the local level since 1972 when WIM was formed. WIM knew the need for accurate educational material that teachers could incorporate into their classroom curriculum.

In 1991, WIM staffed a booth at a regional National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) in Reno, Nevada. The overwhelming number of visitors to that booth convinced WIM that material provided to teachers in a simple, inexpensive and integrated form could be distributed to a number of people. WIM started collecting these hands-on activities and making them available to teachers who requested them. Along with requests for the material, numerous inquiries about providing workshops to demonstrate the use of the activities.

In 1993 the Minerals Education Coalition (MEC) was formed and WIMEF became an integral part of the group. The coalition, a group of businesses and organizations interested in minerals education, sponsor booths at regional National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) meetings, where mineral samples and free education material are distributed. WIMEF has provided both people and material to the MEC booth at every regional NSTA convention since. In 1994, WIMEF began hosting workshops in conjunction with the exhibit booth. At the beginning the workshops were exhibitor workshops, which required sponsors to fund the cost. Due to the success of both the MEC booth and WIMEF workshops, NSTA suggested that we submit proposals for short courses. This improved the workshops because the participants, participants signed up in advance, paid NSTA fees and courses were longer. The workshops started in Baltimore in 1996 with 4-hour short courses. The activities included faults and folding-structural geology-, mineral identification, minerals and products, the rock cycle, cookie mining, earthquakes, flotation and extraction, and other activities. The American Coal Foundation began providing one of their resource teachers in 1997 and coal and energy were added into the short courses. Samples handed out in the MEC booths are the basis for several activities. The WIMEF Board of Directors suggested in 1998 that the courses be shorten to 3 hours. The current 3-hour class time is working well. Evaluations consistently rate our workshops as one of the top classes most of the attendees have attended.

To date we have completed 17 NSTA workshops at NSTA conventions, including two of the National conventions where WIMEF provided mineral and rock samples for the NSTA short course because there was no MEC booth. In 1998 in Las Vegas, Nevada an 8-hour the NSTA short course included a tour of McCaw School of Mines.

Many activities we use are available for downloading from our Website <http://www.womeninmining.org> and new ones are being added as quickly as possible by our volunteers. You are encouraged to get involved. WIMEF is available to help you get started in providing classes to teachers, scouts, civic leaders, company employees and others in your area. The more people taught, the more that will be available to teach in their community, district, or state.

Through WIMEF's success at the NSTA conventions over 42 other workshops have been presented across the United States. The longer sessions normally can allow the teachers in attendance to obtain credit from a local university or college, and if possible, a tour of a mine, a processing facility, a geology site, or a power plants.

WIMEF is able to provide workshops for companies, science teacher groups, environmental teachers, and other groups. Our organization will provide the instructors, material, evaluation forms, and support with those in attendance to make sure they understand the basic concept of each activity, how it can fit into other curriculums, and how it fits into science standards.

A very important part of each workshop is to bring the minerals industry into everyday life by showing the many products made from each mineral and/or rock provided. One way we do this is to put out a variety of products, such as gum, aspirin, roofing shingles, Tums, crayons, etc., and have them match these to the mineral/rock samples provided. Most people have no idea that everything we use requires minerals, except for the air we breathe. The other unique aspect of the workshops is the utilization of industry people when available as instructors. By having the industry people instructing, questions about the industry are answered in an accurate manner.

WIM acknowledges the harm that was done to the environment in the past. Teachers are quick to pick up on any attempt to sugarcoat this subject. Safeguards are in place in modern mining. Today's mining companies are working with various State and Federal agencies to rectify the problems left by earlier abandoned mines and mining companies are now being cleaned up. Environmental problems were not understood until many years later after the mines were abandoned and/or the companies went out of business. WIMEF has developed many new activities to help people understand various aspects of modern mining.

President - Arloa Woolford
wimef@womeninmining.org

Vice President - Sally McLeod C.E.M.

Treasurer - Scotty Norman

Secretary - Jackie Dorr

National Representatives:
Denise Talvitie
Carol Berry


Web Administrator
Barbara Robertson
barb@umr.edu

Board of Directors

2006-2009

Arloa Woolford

Sally McLeod

Barbara Robertson

2004 - 2007

Denise Talvitie

Debbie Schumacher

Carol Berry

2005-2008

Scotty Norman

Jackie Dorr

Lisa Corathers