Tokyo Leading Academy

On Sunday, July 7th, 2019, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education held the "Diverse Link Tokyo Edu Special Trial Seminar," a Diverse Link Tokyo Edu initiative designed to provide more advanced and more creative inquiry-based learning through social and worldwide relationships.

27 Tokyo Metropolitan junior and senior high school students attended the seminar, where the Chairman of Barclays Securities Japan Limited and Barclays Bank PLC Tokyo Branch gave a talk and answered questions from the participants.

１　Date

Sunday, July 7th, 2019 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon

２　Place

CROSSCOOP Shinjuku South

３　Attendees

[Instructor]
・Tetsuya Kodama, Chairman of Barclays Securities Japan Limited & Barclays Bank PLC Tokyo Branch

[Participants]
・27 Tokyo Metropolitan junior and senior high school students and faculty
(Hibiya High School, Tokyo Metropolitan Hakuo Senior High School - Junior High School, Tokyo Metropolitan Minamitama Secondary Education School, and Tokyo Metropolitan Chihaya High School)

４　Theme

Why do things happening on the other side of the world concern us?

５　Feedback from the Participants

The event opened with a 40 minute lecture from the instructor, who then answered questions from students and spoke for over an hour. The student participants raised their hands quickly after the lecture, asking more than 10 questions.

Since the instructor had given the students an assignment to watch BBC News online, the students asked a wide range of questions focused on BBC news articles.

In summary, several students voluntarily spoke about what they had learned that day.
There were common threads in the summaries given. One said, "There was so much information that it was hard to figure out what I should know and if something was true or not.
Attending the seminar taught me how people outside Japan think and what it's important to do when thinking about social problems.
This was an important experience for widening my perspective."

Another said "I appreciated the seminar for teaching me the importance of looking beneath the surface, taking an objective view from many perspectives, understanding relative circumstances, seeing Japan from the outside, and having a diverse worldview."

On the questionnaire following the seminar, 20 out of 21 participants said they were either "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with the seminar (one questionnaire was not returned).

Comments noting the positives about the seminar included "I was able to talk in person with someone broadly knowledgeable and working at the forefront," "I was able to get a firsthand view about an aspect of the world I had not considered," "there was ample time for discussion and not just for listening," and "I was able to hear various questions and views from other students."

For a future workshop, participants said they wanted to exchange views with people their own age and have participation from foreigners, as either the instructor or as students.

Going forward, Diverse Link Tokyo Edu initiatives will be further improved based on feedback from students and supervising teachers.

On Sunday, November 17th, 2019, the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education held the "Diverse Link Tokyo Edu Special Trial Seminar," a Diverse Link Tokyo Edu initiative designed to provide more advanced and more creative inquiry-based learning by establishing closer links with the peoples and nations of the world. The seminar was held in conjunction with Queensland University of Technology and Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo.

The event was attended by 30 Tokyo Metropolitan junior and senior high school students and faculty. Conducted completely in English, the seminar consisted of talks and question and answer sessions by professors from Queensland University of Technology and the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, as well as presentations by students representing their schools.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike also attended a part of the seminar.

[Reference] About Tokyo Leading Academy

Tokyo Leading Academy is a "Diverse Link Tokyo Edu" initiative designed to provide more advanced and more creative inquiry-based learning by establishing closer links with the peoples and nations of the world. This special seminar provides world-class learning opportunities to highly ambitious and capable students.

１　Date

Sunday, November 17th, 2019 13:00 a.m. to 14:00 p.m.

２　Place

ENEOS Hall, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo

３　Attendees

[Instructors]
・Ian Mackinnon, Queensland University of Technology
・Masakazu Sugiyama, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo

[Participants]
・30 Tokyo Metropolitan junior and senior high school students, and supervising teachers
(Hibiya High School, Tokyo Metropolitan Hakuo Senior High School - Junior High School, Minamitama Secondary Education School, Mitaka Secondary School, Kokusai High School, Chihaya High School)

[Special Guests]
・Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Yuriko Koike
・Yuji Fujita, Director General, Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education
・Shannon Willoughby, Executive Director of Study Queensland, Trade & Investment Queensland
・Takashi Kondo, Deputy Director, Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo

４　Seminar Overview

[Theme]
How to realize sustainable energy systems

[Outline]
Part 1: Lecture, live demonstration using the latest laboratory equipment, and Q&A session
“Hydrogen as an enabler of disruptive installation of renewable energy” and other topics

・Lectures by two professors from Japan and Australia regarding recent Japanese endeavors and international trends related to renewable energy, and the importance of international collaboration
・Explanation of the relationship between sunlight and hydrogen and the production of electricity by means of a live demonstration

Part 2: Presentations of student representatives' research results, Q&A session, and critical reviews by the faculty

Summary: Sharing what was learned with other participants

５　Feedback from the Participants

Delivered all in English, this seminar consisted of highly-specialized content that included the latest research trends concerning renewable energy. English-language materials used by the instructors during the seminar had been sent out to students through their schools beforehand. The students had also been given assignments that they then completed at the seminar.

During the seminar, the two instructors each gave talks on renewable energy for about 30 minutes. When asked if they were following the content of the lectures halfway through, most of the students nodded. Several questions were also asked.

While limited presentation time allowed for only presentations from student representatives, these students presented on hydrogen, which they had been researching as part of inquiry-based learning at their schools. They then answered questions from the professors.

On the questionnaire following the seminar, over 80% of respondents said they felt "very satisfied" or "satisfied", with the same percentage saying they "would like to participate again."

As for what the participants liked the most, many mentioned the content of the lectures and the fact that everything was conducted in English.

This was the first seminar to be conducted with the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education, the Queensland University of Technology, and the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo based on an agreement signed with Diverse Link Tokyo Edu. Building on what was learned from this seminar, these organizations intend to continue promoting Diverse Link Tokyo Edu and will hold another seminar in the coming year in wide-ranging fields and with content that the participants will find even more compelling.