Blue River supports the HaiHui Verzui Sustainability Caravan by EFdeN: a mobile STEM lab delivered by electric truck
A semi-trailer turned into an autonomous educational laboratory, a 100% electric truck operated by Blue River and over 2,600 students directly involved in STEM workshops. The HaiHui Verzui Sustainability Caravan by EFdeN brings hands-on education and sustainability closer to children in rural communities and small towns, and Blue River supports the mobility of this project, which has a real impact in the field.
In Romania, thousands of children learn science without access to functional laboratories, modern equipment or hands-on experiences. In many rural communities and small towns, STEM education remains predominantly theoretical, and the opportunities to test, observe and learn through experiment are limited.
Starting from this reality, EFdeN imagined a mobile solution: if students cannot reach laboratories, the laboratories must come to them. This is how the HaiHui Verzui Sustainability Caravan was born — a mobile laboratory built to turn schools, courtyards or public spaces into applied-learning environments dedicated to science, technology and sustainability.
A semi-trailer 13.6 metres long, 2.55 metres wide and almost 4 metres high was transformed by the EFdeN team, together with technical partners Sfinx Campervan & Conversion and the MISO architecture studio, into a completely new educational laboratory, adapted for intensive use in the field.
Blue River provides the project's mobility by operating a 100% electric truck that moves the mobile laboratory to communities. In this way, hands-on education, renewable energy and electric transport come together in a concrete example of applied technology.
From semi-trailer to autonomous educational laboratory
Transforming the semi-trailer required a complex process of design, adaptation and construction, through which a vehicle originally intended for freight transport was converted into a mobile educational space, ready for intensive use in the field.
As part of this process, the caravan's entire technical infrastructure was built: the interior structure, the custom furniture, the plumbing, the electrical system, the multimedia systems and the energy infrastructure.
The result is an autonomous educational space of 33 m², complemented by a retractable 14 m² terrace. The caravan can host a class of 20 students and can be used for STEM workshops, community events, science fairs, demonstrations and educational screenings.
The mobile laboratory includes a classroom, a mobile stage, an open-air cinema, a 3 × 2 metre outdoor screen, a lift for people with disabilities, a fully equipped kitchen, a bathroom with a shower, a four-bed dormitory for the field team and dedicated spaces for storing STEM equipment.
The caravan is equipped with 12 photovoltaic panels, with a total installed capacity of 10.8 kWp. The energy produced is stored in LiFePO₄ batteries and used, through an inverter, to power the educational equipment and auxiliary systems. When conditions allow, the workshops, science shows and film screenings are powered directly by the energy generated on board.
For students, sustainability thus becomes a concrete experience: solar energy is not only explained, it can be seen in operation.
STEM education where access is limited
The HaiHui Verzui Sustainability Caravan is designed as a space for applied education. The workshops include activities on energy, biodiversity, electricity, physical and chemical reactions, the environment, technology and sustainability. Children take part in experiments, ask questions, observe results and understand through practice concepts that, in the classroom, can remain abstract. For many students, the encounter with the mobile laboratory may be their first real experience of scientific learning through experiment.
Route, impact and the next step
The Caravan's first stages validated both the educational concept and the technical operation of the mobile laboratory in the field. Between 20-30 April, the Caravan reached Constanța County, and between 1-5 June the project continued in Brașov County, with activities carried out in schools and communities where access to hands-on education is limited.
To date, the HaiHui Verzui Sustainability Caravan has travelled 2,760 km, reached 33 schools in rural communities and small towns, and organised 147 STEM workshops. The project has directly involved 2,601 students, 75 teachers, 52 EFdeN educators and volunteers, as well as over 550 participants at the science fairs organised in the community.
After the first stages in Constanța and Brașov, the HaiHui Verzui Sustainability Caravan will return to the road in September, with the start of the new school year, with stops planned including in Craiova and Târgu-Jiu. The project will continue its mission of bringing STEM education and sustainability closer to students in communities where access to laboratories and hands-on experiences is limited.
The Caravan was designed as an evolving prototype, and the experience in the field has already led to improvements in the access systems, the furniture, the opening mechanisms and the organisation of the spaces. These adjustments are part of a plan of continuous development, so that the mobile laboratory becomes ever more efficient, more accessible and better adapted to the needs of the children, teachers and teams who operate it.
Through this project, a semi-trailer becomes a laboratory, an electric truck becomes part of an educational mission, and transport turns into access to knowledge for thousands of children.