Record of Our Activities

On October 19th, Runa Yamamori, a graduate student in Kyoto University, was invited to our school and talked about the environmental issues related to the sea by using the various pictures of sea creatures she caught all over Japan.  The students were impressed by her words, “If we can successfully prove the biodiversity, it will be helpful in protecting the environment.”  She welcomed a lot of questions from the students, ranging from about the frequency of her fieldworks to how parasitized creatures “feel” about their situation. 

In October, 2nd-year students in the SGH course visited the U.S.A. for about a week.  They made presentations at Princeton High School, Princeton University and Eco-village in Ithaca about their research projects. Through the discussions, they got new ideas from more global perspectives. They learned a lot in talking with many Americans and staying with American families, which made their stay more memorable and inspiring for their future.

(Voices from the students)
●In the presentations we made at Princeton High School, Princeton University and Ithaca, we had a very fruitful experience and were glad that we were able to get completely new ideas from high school or university students there and the residents in the village, which will be helpful in our future research.  In Ithaca, they have a similar traffic problem to ours, and gave us a useful suggestion such as pedestrians wearing reflective vests that will possibly protect them from getting involved in an accident.
 
●Ms.Yusui and Ms.Kawamori are good role models to me.  I learned that setting a goal and finding something that I can be enthusiastic about were very important.  Ms.Yusui said that she never gave up working hard because she had a goal of standing on the Broadway stage.  Ms.Kawamori had a passion to study abroad and learn about international relations.  Even if you have hardships, you can continue to work hard if you have a concrete dream to realize and a strong passion.

●We were asked why we chose the theme almost every time we made presentations, which was quite surprising to us.  It was a pity that we were not able to answer it clearly.  We made use of this experience in Ithaca and enjoyed the discussions.

On July 18th, Mr. Ryobun Santou from Musashi High School was invited to give a lecture on the SDGs.  All the first-year students and the second-year students in the SG course were able to listen to the lecture.
  
In the lecture, the first-year students ate and compared the chocolates that are made by using palm oil and chocolate that are made without palm oil.  Through the lecture, the students learned the situations in the Borneo Island where there are sides: people who want to save the rainforest and people who want to increase the area of palm oil plantation for profit.
  
The second-year students in the SG course played “2030 SDGs Game” and imagined an ideal world in the future.

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The second-year students in the SG course planned “Omotenahi: How to Welcome People” Project on July 14th for the foreign guests who participated in the Final Presentation the day before.
   
This year’s guide plan was inspired by the workshop that the students participate in June.  The theme for this year’s project were “COLOR”, “TIME”, “WATER” and “SOUND”.  The students and guests were divided into four groups according to the theme.
   
The “SOUND” group took guests to places where they can listen and play an instrument called “Shamisen”.

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On July 13th, the third year students of the SGH course gave their final presentation.  They have worked on their project for more than a year and a half and they did their final presentation in front of many teacher and foreign guests around the nation.  Not only did they give a presentation on their research, but they also participated in the Q&A session and answered the questions in English. 

The people who watched and listened the presentation gave positive comments like: “We were surprise to see the students keep on having a conversation with the foreign guests after each question.” or “The students were doing their presentation seriously but also had some sense of humor”.

During a short break, the students had some time to chat with the foreign guest and learned a bit about foreign cultures.

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