Students in Greater Sudbury can get a crash course in the automotive and mobility sector thanks to new programs offered by the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University.
The Goodman School was awarded $448,550 from the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network and the Ontario Centre of Innovation to develop activities with local partners for the Regional Future Workforce program. Those funds were used to create a project called Electrifying the Future that aims to get more students interested in Ontario’s automotive and mobility sector, particularly in the burgeoning realm of battery-electric vehicles and the critical minerals needed to fund massive electrification and move away from fossil fuels.
“Electrifying the Future is a bilingual set of projects, supported by the RFW program, that aims to build awareness of post-secondary programs that lead to careers in the electric vehicle supply chain from mineral exploration all the way to the automotive and mobility industry,” a release on the funding states.First, MineOpportunity was offered to Grades 7-12 students on June 7-8 at Dynamic Earth. It was designed as a game that aimed to encourage interest in mining as a career.
The next component is a summer camp running July 17-21 and July 31-August 4th for students aged 10-14 years. STEM and non-STEM lessons and activities will be delivered at three locations , along with a one-day field trip to key partners in the project, Epiroc, Technica Mining and Laurentian Chrysler.