Laurentian University's Goodman School of Mines (GSM) is celebrating the success of its "Electrifying the Future" (ETF) program, a series of hands-on workshops that have been igniting elementary and secondary students' interest in electric vehicles, mining, and battery science. The popular program has been running throughout the summer, with one final drop-in session scheduled tomorrow (August 13), for youth and their families to get a taste of the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, from mining to automotive.
This marks the third year that the GSM has been running the ETF program, which first launched in 2023. Over the course of two years, it received ~$730,000 in funding from the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network; a division of the Ontario Centre of Innovation, funded by the province's Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. The program has become a cornerstone of the GSM's community outreach, and has received praise from participants and partners since inception. This summer, despite not receiving renewed funding, the team demonstrated its commitment to student engagement by using existing materials and lesson plans to continue offering the workshops.
"We are incredibly proud to continue the legacy of the "Electrifying the Future" program," said Nicole Tardif, Program Coordinator, Goodman School of Mines. "Our mission is to show students that the skills they learn today can lead to meaningful careers in the clean technology sector tomorrow, and we were determined to keep that momentum going. Seeing the excitement on the faces of youth as they build solar cars or code autonomous vehicles makes it all worthwhile."
The program's engaging content consists of four hands-on activities: building solar cars, geology and mineral identification, making a battery using lemons, and beginner coding for autonomous vehicles. Throughout the summer, the GSM has brought this content to local community events, including the Festival of India, the Gem and Mineral Show, and the YMCA Sudbury day camps. The team also visited local elementary and high schools to present this content to summer school students.
It has been a busy summer for the GSM team, and their next community engagement is an informative booth about the EV revolution at Sudbury's Afrofest on August 22, 2025.
