Sudbury board game makes mining careers fun for high schoolers

More than 350 high school students in Greater Sudbury learned about mining careers through a board game competition at Laurentian University.

Learning was made fun Wednesday in Greater Sudbury as more than 350 English and French high school students participated in Mine Opportunity Challenge.

Held at Laurentian University, the annual competition is a part of Sudbury Mining Week.

The board game is a cross between Monopoly and Amazing Race, where teams answer questions and complete challenges by speaking with representatives from 24 exhibiting companies and school departments located at booths around the game’s location.

There is a huge focus on mining, technology, engineering, geoscience, the environment and trades.

“So that they can learn not only what career paths are available to them, but also about the modern mining technologies and the modern mining environmental rules, engagement with the communities,” said Nicole Tardif, chair of Sudbury Mining Week.

“Essentially (students learn) that mining is an exciting industry where you can get a well-paying job and there’s a multitude of different careers available for them.”

Tardif created the game 20 years ago when she wanted to make learning fun for her geology lab students at the university.

Tardif, who is now the program coordinator at Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University, says she’s seen many iterations of the game.

“I think some students don’t know anything about mining or students don’t know anything about the companies that are here in our community,” she said.

“They do learn about who these companies are and what they do – that opens their eyes to different possibilities of careers they can have.”

Tardif told CTV News that she is excited to see the game continue to expand. It’s been played in Timmins and Thunder Bay and will be played by students in North Bay on Friday.

Work is underway to have it digitized to include animation. Tardif said that’s a collaboration with Cambrian College students who will provide the interactive animation.

She has some big goals for the next five years.

“My goal is to eventually have the game be played Canada-wide in a virtual format…and have people from all across Canada learning about mining and the industry.”