School of Fun for Children in Fukushima

Please find a Japanese version of this report here.

We have held our first summer camp this year on Aug. 4-8 at Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), Keio University, in Fujisaway City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The camp was named "OK Google, Do My Homework!" Term 1, where we tried to automate children's homework such as math drills and book reports, through which we let children learn by experiments what can and cannot be automated in the context of human intellectual activities with today's technology.

Surely those 25 elementary, junior high and high school students who participated in this camp enjoyed getting (although they are just modelled versions and not their real) homework automatically done, but it does not mean that they were lazy. They went through "unplugged machine learning" experience with matchsticks, solved puzzles competing with computers just to see that computers are better at those things, and had fun with many team-building games in which they also learned what it is like to conduct a scientific research (repetitively verifying and refining their hypotheses).

We also visited Maker Faire Tokyo 2018 where children communicated with those people who are into making new things, especially with electronics. We believe that it was both fun and educating.

On the last two days, we let children think about setting homework for their own future. First, we showed them SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) although these goals are more like cleaning up what older generations have done to the Earth and our society. We urged children to define and build their own happiness and future. We hope that this camp was a good opportunity for the participants to feel the changes in the world and to feel like being a part of those changes.

SUPPORT US ON GLOBALGIVING BONUS DAY on SEPT. 12-13

Please support us continue to support those wonderful children getting ready for the future, through GlobalGiving's bonus day campaign, where $50,000 incentive fund is proportionally matched so that every donation from you counts. The campaign starts at 00:00:00 ET on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018 (13:00:00 on Sept. 12 in Japan), and lasts 33-hours, ending at 8:59:59 ET on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018 (21:59:59 on Sept. 13 in Japan). Please join us, and let's make difference together.

Links:

• Academy Camp Facebook page in English