A Human-Centered Approach to Empower Youth as Energy Innovators
E-STEM Stories: Branching Out shares stories of innovative E-STEM work from around the world. E-STEM engages students in meaningful, real-world environmental problem-solving that integrates science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
This post highlights Up4 The Challenge, a 2025 recipient of a Global E-STEM Award. These awards, which support both new and established global E-STEM initiatives, are made possible by Pratt & Whitney and the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE).
This blog post was written by Andrea Hemmerich, co-founder and CEO for Up4 The Challenge.
The Spark Behind Youth Power: Smart Schools
On Wednesday, July 15, 2026, I stepped outside to an eerie orange glow in the sky; the air had an ominous feeling. On that day, Toronto, Canada, my home and the home of our E-STEM workshop participants, had the worst air quality of any city in the world. This time, the smog wasn’t a result of coal-fired power plants or vehicle emissions as it was when I was growing up. Instead, the smoke from intense wildfires in northern Ontario had blown thousands of kilometers halfway across the continent, even blanketing a large area of the northeastern United States.
Such examples of extreme weather and energy challenges are becoming increasingly common. These environmental catastrophes were the inspiration for Youth Power: Smart Schools, a series of half-day workshops to empower Toronto youth from under-resourced communities to take action for a sustainable future. With support from the 2025 Global E-STEM Award, we co-designed a meaningful learning experience for students that would take them from understanding causes to creating change.
Empowering Youth Through Human-Centred Design
At Up4 The Challenge, we use human-centred design to show students how their own diverse knowledge and experiences can help us tackle “wicked” environmental problems that impact the world around us. Young people, like most of us, learn from what they know—at home, in school, and in their communities—and may not see the connection between their everyday experiences, health and safety risks of extreme events, and the global action needed for societal and environmental impact. Furthermore, many see our current environmental issues as the legacy of an older generation and feel despair about being asked to “fix” a problem they didn’t create. This responsibility can feel especially overwhelming for young people who may have grown up hearing that solving big, complex problems requires money and power—resources that many newcomer students in Toronto’s multicultural schools may not see themselves as having.
Students in Toronto complete the carbon footprint quiz during the Youth Power: Smart Schools workshop facilitated by Yves Bakra. Photo credit: Up4 The Challenge
Our workshop helps students connect seemingly small individual choices to larger patterns of energy use and their global impact on environmental sustainability. They then move through the human-centred design cycle, beginning with empathy for challenges faced by members of their school community, including students, staff, families, and neighbours.
Students present their “How Might We” question, design solution, and STEMflower worksheet. Photo credit: Up4 The Challenge
A team’s prototype and STEMflower worksheet. Photo credit: Up4 The Challenge
Students work in teams to address a specific design challenge, such as “How might we use natural resources more effectively to light our classrooms?” After brainstorming dozens of ideas, they build their prototype, present their ideas and get feedback. A unique element is our STEMflower reflection framework—an interactive learning experience that helps students connect each part of their prototypes to core STEM concepts and the positive social and environmental impact they’ve made in the community. One team, for example, integrated light-emitting fungi into their prototype design. On their STEMflower, the roots and stem captured the underlying science—bioluminescence—while the petals showed the impact: lower energy use and a more inviting classroom.
Growing Our Reach: Francophone Communities
The Global E-STEM award helped our small but mighty Up4 The Challenge team expand our programming across Toronto, specifically, to youth in the French public school board that has limited access to STEM-Design education in an Anglophone city. We achieved this through new university partnerships, including l’Université de l’Ontario français.
Working with ten post-secondary students, including two francophone students who led our French workshops, we reimagined how to make climate action and energy conservation relevant to younger students and connected it with experiences of students in the French board; for example, our Carbon Footprint Quiz asks students to reflect on ways in which they use energy on a daily basis. We point out that some of our choices are ones in which we may have some control, while others are limited, such as modes of transportation to get to school. While most students in the English board can walk to school due to a higher density population and smaller catchment areas, most students attending the French schools take a school bus to travel several kilometers across the city. Understanding this nuance helps students empathize with additional barriers some people face in reducing their carbon footprint.
Francophone facilitator, Yves, asks students if they identify as STEM innovators at the end of a Youth Power: Smart Schools workshop. Photo credit: Up4 The Challenge
These young participants demonstrated creative courage and big thinking with their brainstorming and prototypes. No two prototypes were alike and each uniquely incorporated empathy, creativity, and diverse perspectives. Examples range from energy-reclaiming school floors to a carbon-capturing satellite device called “You take my breath away.”
Our Reach and Impact
Over three months, with support from the E-STEM Award, we delivered ten Youth Power: Smart Schools workshops, reaching 275 students aged 11–13 in Toronto, many from neighbourhood improvement areas. The most rewarding moments for me often came during students’ final presentations when they demonstrated their teamwork and pride in their sustainability designs for the community. The questions and comments from their peers also demonstrated critical thinking and the bigger impact that could be made when combining complementary prototypes. Every once in a while in our programs, we also have a student who goes out of their way to express their appreciation for the learning experience by staying behind to tell us how much fun the workshop was or sharing a note translated as “Thank you for the workshop. I loved it.” Witnessing this desire to learn and innovate gives me hope for a sustainable future. Because the next time extreme weather rolls in, our youth will know they have the knowledge, skills, and power to act.
A thank-you note shared by a Francophone student saying she loved the workshop. Photo credit: Up4 The Challenge