Education and Mining

Education touches almost every part of our daily lives. But when we shift that lens to mining, the questions get a lot more interesting. What does education mean in the context of minerals? How can the industry partner with local teachers to help communities understand what mining actually is — and why it matters? Across the country, educators and industry professionals are digging into these questions, working to bridge the gap between classrooms, communities, and the mineral resources that shape them. 

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Education touches almost every part of our daily lives, but when we shift that lens to mining, the questions get a lot more interesting. What does mining education mean in the context of minerals? How can the industry partner with local teachers to help communities understand what mining actually is and why it matters? And honestly, what does mining education even look like in practice? Across the country, educators and industry professionals are digging into these questions, working to bridge the gap between classrooms, communities, and the mineral resources that shape them. Their efforts are reshaping how we talk about mining. And who gets to be a part of that conversation? Welcome back to Grounded Mining the Facts.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Now, I don't know about you, Ella, but I am so excited for this episode.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Honestly, me too. I have met our guest speaker only once before, but I immediately knew I had to have her come on Grounded Mining the Facts to showcase the amazing work she has done in the education space.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Welcome, Sarah, and thank you so much for joining us on this week's episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

And Sarah, would you mind introducing yourself formally for our listeners and tell us a bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Of course. Well, thank you so much for the beautiful introduction. Um my name is Sarah Gray, and I am a high school science teacher in Tolson, Arizona. Um, well, like Avondale, Arizona, but the Tolson School District. Um I have been teaching some form of earth and space science for the past 13 years now. Um, and this is the first year that I will be teaching my um Arizona mining copper course.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

So that's me. That is amazing. 13 years is a long time to be teaching, and you are a saint for doing so.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

I like my job.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

That's awesome. Well, what made you want to create this curriculum surrounding mining and like that course you just talked about?

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Yeah, so um what's funny is three years ago I was very much an environmentalist who was like, mining's terrible, why are we mining? Um, and I a friend of mine invited me to, it's called See You at the Mine, which is a Arizona-based education professional development run by the University of Arizona. And I was like, Yeah, sure, whatever. I get to go down to Tucson for a week. I'll learn some stuff about mining. Sure, let's try it out. Um, my background is in geology. I actually have my bachelor's in geology, um, but I never really cared much about mining. I was always like, volcanoes are cool, yay. Uh but um I was like, okay, sure, I'll I'll learn some more about mining. And once I went to that training, I was like, oh my gosh, mining has changed so much from my misconceptions of like October sky and the black lung and all of that sort of stuff. Um, because that was really all I knew about mining. And I realized that I live in the copper state and I I was educated all of my years in public school. I didn't learn very much of anything about mining at all. And once I went through this training, I'm like, I need to change this. Um, we were supposed to just write one lesson, and that would help us get our stipend for the training. I was like, I can't do just one lesson. I want to write a whole entire course about mining. Um, so I did. And it's taken three years to go through the whole process, but I am finally teaching. I just finished my first day of teaching the course today. So it's very, very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Awesome. Amazing. Oh my goodness. And what would you say is your biggest challenge that you've faced when you've been creating this curriculum?

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Just the act of doing it. It it's interesting writing a new course because you have to go through all of the rules of the district and they have to approve a textbook. They have to approve your curriculum, they have to approve every single step along the way. And it was just a long and tedious process. Um, but I just kept pushing through. I just kept sending emails, hey, did you get this? Did you get this? What do I need to do next? I really want this to be a thing. Hi. And it it worked. I I finally made it through all of the the hurdles that you have to jump through to make it a course. So that that was the the craziest part of it.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

That's amazing. That is. And as you talked about, you know, there's a lot of mixed opinions in the in the general public when it comes to mining. So, how has the public responded to your idea of a mining course in your school?

SPEAKER_02 5:01

And it it's really interesting because I have the kids who know nothing, of course. So um uh a lot of the kids who are in my class right now, it's it's very male heavy, which is interesting. Um, because of course most males want to learn about mining. Um, but there are some females in the course, and then a lot of the counselors have come up to me and like, oh, you're doing the mining course. Have you heard about this? Have you heard about that? And it it's it's very interesting where I'm actually getting the opinions. Um, and they want to know more about it, which is really cool. And I've I've actually reached out to other teachers, like, go do this training, it's amazing, it's very relevant for like chemistry teachers and stuff like that. And um, the word is starting to spread more and more about mining throughout my campus and my district, which is really exciting. So I haven't gotten, I don't think I've really gotten any negative feedback on it. Um, but I'm really trying to make this course not only about the mining, but about the society and the communities around it to make it well, not to make it because mining is very environmentally friendly nowadays, but actually teaching that portion because that is one of the misconceptions of mining's dirty and just all hard work in the mines, and that's not the reality anymore. So it's been really interesting learning that and communicating that within um not only my school, but the district as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

That's amazing. And how have your students felt about it? You just said that you finished day one. How do you feel about it? How do your students feel about it?

SPEAKER_02 6:39

I'm just so stinking excited. Um, I I always joke, I write a lot of curriculum. I'm I'm a huge education nerd, um, especially science education, but like I call them my baby, but like this mining course is my baby. I'm like, I wrote this, it's it's mine. Um, so just so much excitement, so much joy. Um, I have a ton of kids in that class that I've taught before. So it's really cool seeing them for a second time. They took my geology course in the past and now they're back for mining. I'm just I'm excited. I am so excited to connect with um the mining industries and have guest speakers and go on field trips. And I I'm just I'm just like super duper excited. And hopefully the kids in that class can feel that joy too. Cause I I'm just I'm really excited to to teach this amazing content.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Well, I'm not even in the class, and I'm excited. I don't know about you, Amelia. Can I can I join? Yeah, can we join the class?

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Well, and I think that people come up to me and ask too. I'm like, oh I wish.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

That's amazing. And has how has the industry helped you to kind of develop materials for this course? Or are there any plans to do so in the future to kind of bring the industry in? I know you were just talking about guest speakers a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

Yeah, no, I um uh Whitney Lennon with the I think it's Arizona Mining Association actually brought me in, was it a year ago, two years ago? And I I spoke um there, and all of a sudden I've just got this flood of people from the industry. Um, I got invited to the AEMA um summer summit uh two summers ago, and I spoke there, and I'm just like, I'm just a teacher. What what am I doing here? Um, but in the end, the industry needs educated people to go into the mining industry. Um, so it's just like people aren't getting educated on this stuff. Um, and at the the summer summit, um, I talked to some people who um teach in Nevada, and Nevada's the silver state. They have the um the mining stuff within their curriculum, they teach it from kindergarten on. And I'm like, why don't we have this in Arizona or the copper state? Um, but uh I think getting the word out and being able to communicate with industry people, not only to bring them into the classroom, but to educate the students on what sort of options there are out there is really, really important. So, yes, I am planning on all sorts of interacting. Hopefully, they'll come in and do presentations and all sorts of stuff because I've got lots of ideas that I just have to follow through with them. That's always the hardest part. Right. Um scheduling. Scheduler.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

No, that sounds amazing though. I mean, think of all those opportunities that you've been able to experience. The summit that you went to, imagine how many of your students could go to something like that. I personally go to the South Dakota School of Mines, and it would be so amazing if people could come in to that school already, already knowing about all these mining facts. I mean, you could probably clap out of so many classes, didn't you think?

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Absolutely. Yeah.

unknown 10:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

So what do you actually hope that the outcome is from your curriculum? What if you just had a couple things for your students to gain, what would it be?

SPEAKER_02 10:16

Um, so throughout my curriculum, I'm teaching them the history, the science behind mining, and all of the stuff of how we get the materials and then the environmental stuff too. But my very last unit is going to be where they see themselves in mining careers for the future. Um, so not only do I want to have guest speakers in so that they can see, but I would love for them to write resumes and maybe even have mock interviews so that they can see themselves in a mining career or um going into a university to do mining. So it really is a course that is going, okay, we're learning all this stuff. How can we actually use it? So that's my end result. And even if they're not interested and they don't want to go into mining, now they can talk to other people about these awesome opportunities that they learned about in my class.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

That is amazing. I think that as somebody who I didn't even realize I grew up in a mining family, my parents both worked in aggregate, and I just kind of assumed that that was different. I mean, I this sort of course would have been so helpful, especially for for a young person looking at what am I gonna do with the rest of my life?

SPEAKER_02 11:37

Yeah, yeah. And they they always freak out because they're like, oh no, it's the science. I'm like, we need people in social media. Like, if you're good with social media, we need people to communicate that for mining companies. Because not everybody can do that. Interested in nursing, the mines need nurses. There's like so many career opportunities within the mines, it's it's wild. So yeah, I'm excited to communicate with that with them.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

We are so excited, and we're going to have to check back in with you at the end of this school year because I know you were talking about it maybe being uh one or a two-semester class.

SPEAKER_02 12:17

It is a full school year class, so yeah. Um, when I originally wrote it, uh what we were trying to do with my district um is for the senior classes just to have semester long courses that they can kind of pick and choose between. That didn't become a reality. So they're like, okay, you're doing a full year class. And I'm like, oh, okay, let me stretch this stuff out a little bit, which is exciting because I I get to dig in more and I I'm learning while I'm teaching too. So it's it's been a an awesome experience. But yeah, it's it's been a lot of work, but a lot of really, really cool stuff to learn.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

That's amazing. I think I have one more question for you, and then if Amelia has another question, fantastic. My question, bringing it to South Dakota, what can the industry do to maybe make it a little bit easier for teachers if they're wanting to start a class or a program like yours in their own, in their own home, in their own schools and their communities?

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Great question. Um, and that's a tricky one because not all teachers are like me, and I I I hate to put teachers down because we're in a hard industry as well. Um, but there's teachers who don't want to improve themselves. They don't want to write new courses because, like I shared, it's a lot of work. Yeah. Um, but being able to work with U of A and having amazing contacts through them, um, and just being able to network with uh industry people and people who have um field trips and opportunities for them to come into the classroom is incredibly helpful. Um, making our lives as teachers as easy as possible is is gonna help the majority of people. Um, and then just offering I hate to say free, but I I know teachers usually don't do stuff unless it's free or we're getting paid for it. Um, so if you have opportunities like that, that is really gonna help educators across the United States.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

So that's fantastic. A quick note so SDMIA actually teams up with the South Dakota School of Mines once a year, and we provide free and paid teacher workshop days where teachers actually get to come in and they hear from professors at the South Dakota School of Mines for one day, and then they actually get to go out and tour companies on the second day.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

And so it's a free event for them to attend. They get continuing education credits. We have given them stipends for the last three years, which is how long we've been doing this course. Um, and we've always seen these great results from it. And we give them all of the education materials that SDMIA has or our member companies have. So if they want to do, oh, what is mineral exploration? Here's how you can do it with Play-Doh. You don't actually have to go home and bake because gosh, I can only imagine how tired teachers are at the end of the day. I'm tired after one career fair. Couldn't imagine doing it every day, all day. Do you have any other questions, Amelia?

SPEAKER_00 15:35

I don't have any questions, but I just want to say thank you so much for what you do. As a as a college student right now, it's so important that we have teachers out there that really want to educate students, really want to bring up these interesting topics like mining that are so essential in today's world. And so thank you so much for what you do.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Yes. Of course. Thank you. Well, thank you again, Sarah, for joining us and sharing all of the amazing work you're doing in Arizona. And I am so excited to see how this course goes for you. And I promise, uh, as somebody who serves on AEMA's board, I will be reaching out to hopefully have you come and talk to us a little bit more as time goes on.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Yes, I'm I'm super excited to see how it works out.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Fantastic! Well, SDMIA would like to thank all of our amazing educators in our nation schools, and we really look forward to working with our own local educators here in South Dakota to further the understanding of minerals and mining. Thanks for joining us for this episode. If you liked this conversation, follow the show so you don't miss what's next. And send us your questions. We'll use them to help shape future episodes.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Join us next episode where we will be unearthing the complexities of mineral exploration.