School of Fun for Children in Fukushima

Please find a Japanese version of this report here.

As our previous report explained, our summer - fall - (and now) winter camp activities have gone online as a countermeasure to COVID-19 pandemic, following our spring activities. We have named the series of activities from this summer "Academy Camp-style! Serious Research", consisting of plenary (bi-)weekly online meetings and continuing conversations/research consultations with an online chat tool.

Here is another mid-term, work-in-progress report from the young researchers whose ages range from 10 to 18. We participated in "Maker Faire Tokyo", a celebration of "Makers", in Tokyo until the last year, but this year we joined the wonderful event online, and we had a lot of fun viewing the exhibition together via Twitter. As makers themselves, one of the young researchers is making a game in which a paleontological animal Dimetrodon eats sharks, another is trying to control his avatar in 3D space with brain waves, and yet another is trying to get the best sustainable plan through classifying the business models of handling donations on blockchain. Activities of others include striving to get rid of the potato poison, planning for sustainable town development, looking for the best way to learn a second language, studies on the genes and behaviors of hornets, building a bartering mechanism, and acquisition of practical knowledge of the flow experience.

We are planning to hold a presentation session in December, and we aim to make it an Academy Camp-style conference where the young researchers plus university students and alike involved as the staff members of this series of events can interact with one other through their research. We hope that it will be an emergent opportunity, because research is not an individual but a community activity from beginning.

PLEASE HELP US ON #GivingTuesday

Please give us on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 ET! (Eastern Time) That is, from 14:00 on Tuesday, Dec 1 to 13:59 on Wednesday, Dec 2 JST! (Japan Standard Time) GlobalGiving is providing $1,000,000 incentive fund for donations that will be distributed proportionally to participating projects, including Academy Camp, based on the final fundraising totals during the period. Every dollar you donate plus the distributed fund go toward our cause, making your contribution even more impactful. Please take advantage of this great opportunity to support our community, children of Fukushima, children of all Japan and Academy Camp.

We are distributing Chromebooks to make it easier for children who don't have a computer of their own to participate in online activities, and more funds are needed to prepare the environments for more children. We are also thinking of gradually reopening the physical camps, and we need funds to do so as well.

Links:

• Academy Camp Facebook Page in English

Please find a Japanese version of this report here.

Our summer and fall camp activities have gone online as a countermeasure to COVID-19 pandemic. We have named the series of activities "Serious Research", consisting of a plenary online meeting every Sunday and continuing conversations with an online chat tool.

The series will probably continue throughout this year, but here is a mid-term report to let you know just some of the research topics the children are working on: A girl wants to find out about vegetable breeding to get rid of toxins in potatoes. A boy is investigating the differences in his brain waves when he is engaged in different intellectual activities (learning math or English, for example). A girl wants to build a new donation service using blockchain. A boy who is interested in the diet of a paleontological animal called dimetrodon tries to recreate an animated dimetrodon eating a shark.

Our staff and mentors are very excited to see how these studies will progress. At each plenary meeting, we also learn about the attitude of science, the spirit of skepticism and verification, how the results of science are shared and followed up on, and what can be considered fake science.

HELP US LITTLE BY LITTLE

Here is another important announcement! GlobalGiving has launched a "Little by Little" campaign from Sept.14 9:00am to Sept.18 11:59pm EDT (Sept.14 22:00 to Sept.19 12:59 JST), where your donations up to $50 per person will be matched 50%, and there is no limit with the matching funds! We would be very happy if you could take this great opportunity to support children not only in Fukushima, but any children with something to explore, and Academy Camp.

Links:

• Academy Camp Facebook Page in English