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| Oosh or meow? （招き猫みたい笑） |
From August 2 to 4, we welcomed six high school students from Yoron Island (与論島), one of the Amami islands in Southern Japan, to the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute (AORI) to join the first intensive summer science camp. The students analyzed various water samples collected by themselves using the Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) in our laboratory. Let us review some of the highlights during the science camp together!
Day 1
After a good night’s sleep on Kashiwa campus, day 1 of the science camp started with orientation. Afterwards, the students were given a tour of the breeding room by Hyodo sensei, the vice president of AORI, who is an expert in sharks. It was followed by a tour of the Accelerator Mass Spectroscopy (AMS) by Yokoyama sensei. Despite the dense information, the students were actively taking notes. One funny anecdote is that a student mistakenly wrote spaceship (宇宙船) when Yokoyama sensei mentioned cosmic ray (宇宙線), which is not completely wrong since aliens theoretically could be one of the many unknown sources of cosmic rays.
After the lab tour, the students presented about their research interests. The topics span through a wide spectrum, from environmental issues and natural terrain of Yoron Island.
| “Science Camp” wall news (壁新聞) prepared by students before coming to Tokyo. |
After some intense brain work, the students enjoyed delicious bento from the sushi restaurant “Hama” below. I always find “Hama” one of the greatest selling points of AORI. How lucky we are to have such an awesome sushi shop as our cafeteria.
After lunch, the students were given instructions on how to dilute their samples using pipettes. The students were very careful and treated the pipettes with extreme care. I really admire them for that since I am always very chaotic with pipettes.
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| Shoko showing the students how to use a pipette. |
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| Kai supervising students on diluting samples. |
After some intense brain work, it is time for something fun! We had a fancy water tasting section during which we tasted bottled water from different brands to see how hardness affects water’s taste. Apparently, Yoron Island is known for having not-so-tasty water since there are too many minerals inside, making it hard. Some of us even closed our eyes to do blind tasting to see if we can tell which water is which. It was actually very easy to distinguish! However, it is important to acknowledge that taste is a very subjective sensation. What tastes good for me might not taste good for you depending on the environment we grew up in. When I was a kid, I preferred hard water to sweet soft mineral water. I think this might be because I grew up drinking relatively hard water in Beijing and got used to the taste. However, I enjoy both hard and soft water now. If our tastes for food and drink can be shaped, this actually gives us a lot of hope to reshape our food system to a more sustainable one for both the planet and earthlings.
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| Water tasting. Left to right: natural mineral water, medium hard water, hard water. |
Day 2
The second day started with learning how to use the ICP-AES machine to analyze the samples we diluted the day before. Sabrina gave instructions in English while Kai did the Japanese interpretation as usual. Nice collaboration!
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| Sabrina being pro at demonstrating how ICP-AES functions! (P.S. she used to do similar stuff in a zoo in Australia, but explaining about animals instead of machines!) |
After the instruction, the students were given the freedom to analyze their own samples. The water analyzed included seawater, groundwater, tap water, and brown sugar shochu distillation wastewater collected at several locations on Yoron Island this July. It was a lot of samples and a lot of hard work. Look how concentrated they were! (Little scientists in the making haha)
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| Being serious while analyzing samples. |
Day 3
The big day finally came! The last day is when the students presented their findings. A lot of people were there, including the president of AORI, journalists and staff members from the educational bureau. A lot of government officials and high school teachers from Yoron Island also joined online.
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| Lots of journalists and staff from the educational bureau came. |
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| A lot of people from Yoron Island joined online. |
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| First group of students giving presentation. |
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| Second group of students giving presentation. |
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| Students asking questions to each other. |
After the presentation, Shoko, Sabrina and I accompanied the students and their teacher to visit Hongo Campus. On the train to Hongo, the students all fell asleep. They had very little sleep the night before to prepare for the presentation. Otsukaresamadeshita!
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| Sleeping on the train. Optimal use of time. |
It was an intense week for everybody. Interacting with Yoronjima students is also a fun and refreshing experience for me. Their energy, curiosity, and passion for science always remind me of what first made me fall in love with science – curiosity for the unknowns.
Area revitalization has been a heated topic in Japan these years. Ever since I first came to Japan 5 years ago, I have joined several exchange activities with Japanese middle school and high school students organized by the Japanese government. One of them was a camp with students from a village in Miyazaki prefecture. I presented about my hometown and research, and then we rediscovered their village together through a photo contest. I really like the idea of "glocalization". It is important to catch up with the international community, but it is no less important to keep the local cultures alive. We cannot forget our roots if we want to become the best versions of ourselves. It is about creating something original based on our own unique backgrounds rather than blindly mimicking others.
Moreover, I think engaging the local people is extremely for scientists and scholars. What is the purpose of university after all? In my opinion, it should not be for the mere selfish gain of social status and money. Of course, our smart brain and hardworking spirit have to be given credit for getting us into Todai, but we have to acknowledge the privilege we received from our environment. There are many people who are as smart and hardworking as us but could not go to university due to environmental factors. Rather than trying to climb up to the top of the world, we should try to play a humble role in making the world a more just place. Science is a double-edged sword, and we need virtuous scientists to make sure science and technology are used to make the world a better place rather than destroying it. This is why I think educating the heart is as important, if not more, as educating the mind.
Back to the main topic. The science camp was both fun, and a bit exhausting. I hope to visit Yoron Island and other Amami Islands one day.
Work hard, play harder! ^^
