The auto industry is searching for emerging talent—and Canadian science teachers are taking notice.

High schoolers at St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby, B.C., spent over a year partnered with a national research facility of the University of Saskatchewan, testing how electric-vehicle batteries from Tesla and local startup Nano One degraded after charging cycles at different temperatures.

It’s the type of project that’s good news for the Canadian battery industry, which is now competing for specialized talent at a global scale. The need to woo a new generation of auto workers has been an issue raised both by unions like Unifor and by industry groups like the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association. 

What they found: The students found the chemical composition of the batteries was in line with the companies’ claims, and that there wasn’t a strong correlation between changes in chemical composition and overall battery degradation under the test conditions. 

“This definitely showed us that these batteries are extremely capable of lasting for a long time and keeping their charge,” Brandon De Lazzari, a student in the research team, told The Logic. “[It] reinforced this sector’s ability to succeed.” 

Why it matters: Another student who participated in the project, Cameron DeWith, said the project has helped him get scholarships and he’s considering entering the EV field after university. 

Senior physics teacher Joe Muise, who runs the program, said he views it like a mini master’s program that allows the students to see themselves as scientists. 

De Lazzari said the experience showed them science is not just theory, but a way to take action on issues like climate change.

“Being young people, obviously, [climate change] is an important problem for us—because at some point, some generation is going to have to deal with it. And it’s most likely going to be us,” De Lazzari said.

An inspiring teacher goes a long way: The young B.C. scientists have something in common with Alex Rodrigues, the Canadian who became the youngest CEO of a public company at 26 after Embark Technology’s SPAC deal last year.

In an interview with The Logic last year, Rodrigues said he had been doing competitive robotics like it was “an Olympic team” since Grade 7 thanks to his teacher, Ron Sveen, whose influence still drives Rodrigues today—the Embark CEO donated his entire 2022 salary to STEM education.

Like De Lazzari, Rodrigues recalls wanting to see more science in action. “I felt like we did a lot of bookwork, and not a lot of building robots. As a guy who’s been building robots for many years, I had that itch to go build something,” said Rodrigues of his time at the University of Waterloo.

“[Sveen] taught me a lot, not just about robotics, but also about excellence.” 

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