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The Minerals Education Coalition (MEC) is SMEF’s designated program to develop and deliver accurate and suitable K-12 education materials and activities and conduct public awareness outreach about mining and minerals.  The MEC was created with the vision of generating an enlightened and supportive public that appreciates the importance of mining and minerals to their lives and their lifestyles.

Several distinct, yet equally important groups, are the targeted audiences for the activities of the MEC, specifically: 1) K-12 students who are the consumers of the future and potential employees of the mining industry; 2) teachers of K-12 students who will provide the knowledge and skills needed to provide factual and meaningful instruction and experiences for youth; 3) SME members throughout the nation who locally provide accurate and significant educational activities for K-12 students and the general public; and, 4) the general public who are the beneficiaries of mining and minerals in their daily lives.

The responsibilities of the K-12 Education and Public Awareness Curriculum Coordinator include:

• Identifying, researching and producing factual, developmentally appropriate, motivational and intellectually stimulating lessons and activities related to the importance of mining and minerals for K-12 classroom teaching in collaboration with educators and industry experts
• Innovation using new technologies to deliver K-12 lessons and activities about mining and minerals (i.e., SMART Board, on-line learning, video researching and scripting, Power Point, etc.)
• Represent the MEC at local, regional and national conferences
• Conduct “Training of Trainers” workshops about the importance of mining and minerals to demonstrate the delivery of effective curriculum and occasionally model lessons with students in classrooms
• Develop, aggregate and report appropriate assessments for outcomes related to materials’ contents
• Provide regular reports to executive management and volunteer committees concerning projects’ status and recommendations for new project initiatives
• Plan and report budgets for curriculum development and production activities 

SMEF offers a competitive salary and benefits package including health, dental and life insurance, paid vacation, sick days and holidays, a generous 401k plan with employer contribution and flexible work schedule.

Requirements

• Minimum of Bachelor’s Degree in education, earth science or mining-related major, Master’s Degree preferred.
• Demonstrated success in curriculum development involving usage of a variety of technology tools
• Creative problem solving
• Ability to collaborate with educators, professionals in the mining, metallurgy and exploration industries, and the general public
• Ability to work independently and quickly in a fast-paced environment
• Available for some overnight travel
• Collaboration in a team environment to extend to assisting in other functions as requested

 

All applications must contain a cover letter expressing why the candidate is interested in this particular position which includes how his/her experience is relative to the exact duties of the position, a resume and a lesson plan or curriculum writing sample aligned with national or state science standards.  Applications must be sent as one electronic document attachment by the deadline of April 25, 2013 to Sharon Schonhaut, MEC Manager at schonhaut@smenet.org.