Fostering Inquisitive Learners

by The American School In Japan

Project Report | Oct 4, 2017
ASIJ and Global Online Academy

By Erin Nelson | Director of Advancement

Paul O’Neill (director of teaching and learning) updates us on Global Online Academy (GOA). Five years ago ASIJ joined GOA, an online platform with over 60 schools from all over the world, in an effort to broaden the opportunities for high level courses that our students can take and to create additional specialist areas.

At the start of the 2016-17 school year, we opened courses to grade 10 for the first time and a total of 26 students took part in GOA courses. Courses such as IOS app development, global health, medical problem solving, organic chemistry, linear algebra and comparative politics provided additional pathways and opportunities for students to pursue areas of interest.

One of our students last year earned a GOA Citation, which is awarded to participants whose exemplary presentations best represent the goals of the conference: raising awareness, promoting grassroots action and promoting institutional change. Student Rae earned her GOA Citation for her presentation on gender inequality in Japan. Rae summarized her project by saying that she “described the state of gender inequality in Japan and explored the cultural conditions that accounted for such a huge disparity in a very developed and modern country.” She then compared Japanese gender-related policies to those of Iceland, which has been deemed the most gender equal country in the world, looking at the issue from four lenses: labor participation, pay gap, maternity leave and political participation. You can learn more about her project on the GOA website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=21&v=QEvmsQCq48I

This year, a new cohort of students embark on an exciting new experience as they undertake courses with GOA. Each semester GOA offers a range of interesting and diverse courses that provide broader subject choice. Courses that our students will be taking include: filmmaking, poetry writing, Arabic language and culture, digital journalism, human rights, entrepreneurship in a global context, computer science and abnormal psychology.

GOA courses generally fit within concentrations such as new models of thinking, building empathy and human behaviour, catalyzing change, design and technology, exploring diversity and supporting sustainability. These concentrations allow for students to pursue ideas and passions. This invariably creates a personal pathway within domains of study that become a point of interest for students to pursue or to fill a gap that their school curriculum might not meet.

This year we also have three of our ASIJ high school faculty members teaching courses for GOA. Ryosuke Suzuki is teaching Japanese language and culture, Beth Crissy is teaching medical problem solving and Brendan Sarsfield is teaching architecture.

In addition to our three high school teachers, we are thrilled to announce that Jessica Gould has been awarded the title of Learning Design Coach by Global Online Academy. Jessica is also teaching a GOA course. This year Jessica was invited to join the 2017-2018 inaugural Learning Design Coaches Cohort which is made up of thirteen coaches, each of whom has demonstrated a commitment to excellent teaching and learning in the classroom, the school, and the professional learning community.

Learning Design Coaches will:

Lead collaborative initiatives between and among schools as a GOA vision ambassador.
Submit for conferences as a GOA Learning Design Coach.
Be eligible to lead professional learning workshops, courses, and events.
Create and publish content including writing blogs and thought-pieces about their modern learning ideas and innovations.
Learn coaching and leadership skills based on their individual goals and interests.
Join a growing community of instructional coaches and educational leaders.

You can learn more about Global Online Academy and our students’ previous work with the program by checking out our past posts: ASIJ Joins Global Online Academy and Expanding Learning Horizons with GOA.

Links:

ASIJ News post on Global Online Academy

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Jul 10, 2017
ASIJ High School Students Visit Oracle Corporation

By Jean Ren | Advancement Database Officer

Apr 14, 2017
2nd Annual Engage Innovators & Entrepreneurs Forum

By Jean Ren | Advancement Database Specialist

The second annual Engage Innovators and Entrepreneurs Forum at the Tokyo American Club was held on March 2, 2017. The American School in Japan (ASIJ) and the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) coordinated the event, providing an opportunity for ASIJ students to hear directly from leaders in innovation and entrepreneurism, and to network and exchange ideas with members of ACCJ.

This year’s event opened with a sit-down lunch at the Tokyo American Club. Seventeen ASIJ sophomores, juniors and seniors were spread out amongst eight tables, joining approximately 60 members of the Tokyo business community. The students had the opportunity to meet the professionals at their table and learn more about their work. “I learned how to properly and politely interact at a professional event,” Jessica, a senior, reflected. Elina, a sophomore, remarked, “Some of the people I spoke with were extremely interesting, I had a few new discoveries and I made some connections!”

After lunch and an introduction by Jessica, four speakers took the podium—Dan Tani, a former NASA astronaut, current ASIJ faculty member and parent; William, a senior at ASIJ; Denise R. Rutherford, PhD, president of 3M Japan and an ASIJ parent and Eugene Saburi, president of Adobe Japan and parent of three ASIJ students. The speakers from the business community addressed how they became interested in science, technology and engineering, and how following their passions led them through sometimes unconventional career paths to where they are today. They also addressed questions from the audience regarding innovation and entrepreneurship in Japan.

William, a high school senior taking an open-ended AP Research course at ASIJ, impressed the audience with an overview of his work. William is currently conducting primary research into an industrial automation protocol that plays a key part in the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) movement by providing a method to interconnect and facilitate data exchange between machinery from different vendors—OPC Unified Architecture. Beyond academic research, William is heavily involved in robotics and computer science. He captained a VEX Robotics team that won the Amaze Award in 2015 and the Think Award in 2016 at ASIJ’s International VEX Robotics Competition. Over the summer, he also engaged with a Japanese company to develop mobile applications.

Amanda, a sophomore at ASIJ, noted, “It was extremely inspiring. People like the presenters have achieved some of my future goals. I also learned a lot about the fields talked about and more about companies and problems I didn’t know about.”

High school junior Yuka had a similar reaction: “I am so glad to have met the many accomplished people at the Engage Forum, and I was able to discover numerous opportunities and possible roads to take from them. Overall, it was eye-opening.”

This year, after the conclusion of the Engage Forum, nine of the student participants attended a briefing at LinkedIn’s Tokyo office to learn how to improve their professional networking profiles and how to use LinkedIn to make connections for internships and jobs in the future. ASIJ hopes to continue this unique annual event, which gives students a rare opportunity to directly connect with the local business community.

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