By Todd McGowan:
Gen Z learners are intelligent, aware of social issues and concerned about the climate crisis….and they can brush their teeth using a mobile phone. They are also the next generation of drivers and will be pivotal in what happens in the transportation sector across Canada. That’s why GTEC developed the GenZ Goes Electric project delivered online from January to March of this year. The project was funded by Emotive BC and offered with the assistance of the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association.
Hugh Boyd Secondary School in Richmond, BC and Kalamalka Secondary School in Vernon, BC were pitted against one another in the first, GenZ Goes Electric, EV competition. Using the GTEC web-based application developed by Lunge Systems, each school had to create three electric vehicle adoption ads over a four-week period. The three challenge submissions targeted the Gen Z demographic and consisted of a 15 second digital commercial, a one-page pitch promoting EV adoption, and an ad that could be used on a wide variety of social media platforms. In addition, electric vehicle education modules were posted weekly that provided information on the history, current status, and predicted future of electrified transportation.
The final score in the competition was 2-1 with Hugh Boyd Secondary School taking home the coveted GenZ Goes Electric trophy. The creative submissions submitted by both Hugh Boyd and Kalamalka were of the highest quality and everyone involved in the project was incredibly impressed with what the students came up with. Challenge submissions from both schools can be found on the GTEC website.
Although the program had to be adapted as a result of Covid-19 restrictions, it was a great success. The project was successful as a result of the close collaboration between GTEC, VEVA, EmotiveBC and Lunge Systems and the excellent teachers and student leaders at Kalamalka and Hugh Boyd Secondary Schools.
So, what did we learn? We learned what worked and didn’t work with the web-based application and have a more user-friendly application as a result. We learned that VEVA and Emotive are great partners for collaboration on EV projects. But, most importantly, we learned that there is room for a scaled-up version of the GenZ Goes Electric program that will involve more high schools in BC and perhaps a post-secondary version of the program as well.
We are excited about moving forward with the next iteration of GenZ Goes Electric and look forward to future collaboration with EmotiveBC and VEVA.
#GenZGoesElectric
If you would like to read more articles about young people and climate change, check out GTEC’s Youth blogs.