School of Fun for Children in Fukushima

Please find a Japanese version of this report here.

During the three-day weekend in July 2023 in Japan, we had an online camp dedicated to playing Minecraft. 10 children, from elementary school to high school and technical college students from all over Japan, participated in this camp.

Most of the time was spent building things in the Minecraft world, with some of the adult staff members playing with Minecraft for the first time, and the children were eager to teach them how to play.

One female technical college student developed a serious game (game whose primary purpose is not entertainment) to play in Minecraft with the help of a large language model. This is a game that lets you experience recycling. Players can demolish buildings, collect materials, and make good use of forest resources. It is a rather complex game, but we played it three times over three days, improving the design and operation of the game. During this time, the adults played and operated the game while learning from the children.

We had a lot of fun at this camp, and the results will be exhibited at Maker Faire Tokyo 2023 in October. We hope the children had the best "daze" of their lives.

PLEASE HELP US LITTLE BY LITTLE

GlobalGiving's September 2023 Little by Little campaign will be held from September 18, 2023, at 00:00 EDT to September 22, 2023, at 23:59 EDT. All eligible donations up to $50 USD per unique donor per organization will be matched at 50% for the duration of the campaign. Please take this great opportunity to further support the children in Fukushima, in the whole Japan, and Academy Camp.

Links:

• Academy Camp Facebook page in English

Please find a Japanese version of this report here.

We held a 2-day online, 2-day physical camp during the May holidays in Japan in 2023. 10 elementary, junior-high and high school children altogether, from Tohoku region including Fukushima in the north to Kyushu region in the south, participated in the camp.

This time, the camp members tried to create serious RPGs. A serious RPG is a role playing game as a serious game. A serious game is a (video) game whose primary purpose is not entertainment. We brought together issues of concern in our society and created games that would help people learn about them and think about how to solve them. Creating games is hard work, so we decided to enlist the help of artificial intelligence. We took on the challenge of creating and playing serious RPGs with automatic generation by prompting a large language model (GPT). The series of RPGs we created this time are similar to tabletop RPGs, where the language model acts as the game master (GM) guiding the game's progress. The children played the roles of characters in the story, and together with the GM, they improvised and created the narrative through their dialogue. The children programmed GM to play their intended games using natural language prompts, namely in Japanese.

This may have been more difficult than expected for the children, but with the help of graduate students and other staff members, a series of ironic and funny games were created. As a matter of fact, we found that it was easy to create a simulation of a situation, for example, the disaster prevention measures of the Tokyo Metropolitan area, at the early stage of this camp. However, simulations looked a little too serious, and the children aimed for something more exciting to play as games, as we kept saying "Don't be so serious". As a result, a variety of games have emerged, including one where you shrink in size to struggle with food scarcity, a game where you ironically learn about the importance of the ocean by expanding land, a game where you manipulate the weather to flood cities and thereby understand the significance of flood control, and a game which prompt you to reconsider the purpose of school homework.

The children enjoyed the challenge, but most of all, the experience of physically gathering to camp together seems to have left a lasting impression. We are preparing to hold another camp that fosters the future of children, gathering physically again, while being mindful of heatstroke during the summer.

JULY BONUS DAY IS AHEAD

A GlobalGiving bonus day with matching for donations of $100 or more is coming up on July 12. The higher the donation, the higher the match while funds last. We hope you will take this great opportunity to further support the children of Fukushima, those in Japan altogether, and Academy Camp.

Links:

• Academy Camp Facebook page in English