CEMEX | A Local Mine Partners with Schools to Provide One-of-a-Kind Educational Opportunities for Students

En Español

Conservation education programs benefit greatly from well-developed and integrated partnerships with local schools. These partnerships not only facilitate meaningful educational outcomes for students, but can connect the site – and the company – to the local community in a significant way.

The team at CEMEX’s Center Hill Mine has developed a strong, long-standing, integrated partnership with the local school systems in and around Sumter County, Florida, where the mine is located.  The Center Hill Mine is comprised of a 996-acre active rock quarry, and includes 229 acres of actively-managed habitats like lakes, wetlands and forest.

Since 2006, the team has hosted classes of fourth and sixth graders from local schools, beginning the curriculum with a mine tour to provide a context of where they are in relation to factors such as habitat, geology and site operations. Students then participate in activities that correlate with Florida Sunshine Standards, Common Core, and the Next Generation Science Standards and allow students to engage with the site’s wetland habitat and its resident species, which include great blue herons, sandhill cranes, osprey, American coots, wood ducks, cormorants, anhingas and frogs.

The elementary school program includes fourth graders visiting the site over a three-week period in October and November, with all students participating in a set of four activities focused on recycling, runoff and erosion, water conservation and the food chain. Sixth graders visit the site over a three-day period in March, with students choosing which two of the six available activities on water quality that they will participate in. To ensure that its educational goals are met, the team coordinates with teachers to evaluate the learning impact of the activities, conducting pre-tests on-site and post-tests in the classroom that assess factors such as the desired vocabulary students should have learned during their visits.

Four years ago, the CEMEX team expanded its educational opportunities to the AP Environmental Science class at South Sumter High School. This year-long curriculum is focused on teaching students about the mine permitting process from start to finish, and how mining and environmental stewardship can go hand-in-hand. The students, who dubbed themselves “APES” (for AP Environmental Science), go on field trips and attend on-site trainings at the Center Hill Mine and other nearby CEMEX facilities, such as CEMEX’s Brooksville South Operations, where students viewed a blast of explosives used to free aggregate. CEMEX also provides a variety of in-classroom guest speakers, including geologists and hydrogeologists, lawyers, public relations staff, and archaeologists. The curriculum culminates in March when the APES present their mine permitting plan at a mock community meeting and mock permitting meeting with the Board of County Commissioners, who are represented by teachers and at least one actual commissioner.

Students from other grades in the local school systems are also given opportunities to participate in the site’s education program. The site’s annual Earth Day event, started 9 years ago, includes over 35 educational booths focused on habitat and the environment, which are led by local schools, community partners and government agencies.

Through these programs and partnerships, the Center Hill Mine has established itself as a vital member of the community, producing meaningful educational opportunities benefiting hundreds of local students.

Related Content

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  • Back to School: Partnering with Local Schools to Strengthen Your Certification Program
  • Celebrate Earth Day!
  • WHC Introduces Project WET to MD Teachers
• Project Guidances:
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• Webinars:
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  • Incorporating Project Learning Tree into Your Educational Projects
  • Monitoring and Evaluation: What’s Working, What Isn’t
  • Wetland Habitats: Identification, Monitoring and Use as Outdoor Classrooms
  • STEM Learning in Your Habitat
  • Building Effective Partnerships: Case Studies