Journal

   On Saturday, November 7th, the 3rd year ofReiwa, a presentation announcement and a Question-and-Answer session were heldat the “Sea Treasure Academic Contest 2021” national convention, sponsored byHokkaido University.

   The second-grade science and mathematicsresearch group at our school reached and participated in the finals, andreceived the National Treasure Award, the highest in the marine sciencecategory.

Author’s opinion: “This was a very splendid opportunity to win such a special award.  Thanks to this event, I have learned how toresearch and make our presentations more effective.  From now on, I will continue researching on thistopic more.” 209 FUJII Masato.
      

   On October 31st, forty students from ourhigh school took part in the virtual event of “The Stars are Calling Us: the 20thannual Astronaut Lacy Veach Day of Discovery.” This program has been conductedby Hawaii Space Grant Consortium in order to promote STEM education in schools,and is expected to develop the students’ scientific minds.

   Due to the time zone difference betweenMatsuyama and Hawaii, the program started as early as 07:00 local time. Despitethis, students attentively listened to lectures of the professors, and byjoining the program, they came to realize the importance of challengingthemselves with new things.

Lectures:

The Stars areCalling Us: the 20th annual Astronaut Lacy Veach Day of Discovery

〇Astronaut Megan McArthur from the International Space Station

〇Brianne Kehau Yamada, Power Supply Engineer, Design II, Hawaiian　Electric

〇Shelee Kimura, Senior Vice President, Customer Service and Consumer Affairs,Hawaiʻian Electric

〇Governor David Ige, Governor, State of Hawaiʻi

〇Dr. Heather Kaluna, Assistant Professor of Astronomy, University of Hawaiʻi Hilo

Mini hands onSTEM Workshops:

〇Bernoulli: how things fly (Bryan Silver, Kalani High School)

〇Microgravity: why do you float in space? (Hawaii SpaceFlight Laboratory)

〇Chromatography: separating pigments (Dr. Kate Perrault,Chaminade University I am a Scientist program)

〇Forensic Science: Fingerprints (Cynthia Cheung, ChaminadeUniversity )

〇Chemistry of Butter (Dr. Francis Sakai-Kawada, Chaminade University )

〇Chemistry of Ice Cream (Dr. Kate Perrault, Chaminade University )

〇Squishy Circuits using dough (Hawaiian Electric)

〇Nature Math: Fibonacci Sequence (Ethan and Maya Kimura)

STEM Magic(Harvey Ouchi and Ron Ishimaru, Hawaii Magicians)

〇Data Science: Clustering your kitchen utensils (Dr. Laura Tipton,ChaminadeUniversity I am a Scientist program)

STEM stars

〇Amber Imai-Hong, Avionics Engineer, Hawaiʻi Space FlightLaboratory,University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

〇Brialyn Onodera, Thermal Systems Engineer, National Solar Observatory,Maui

〇Nicole Yamase, PhD candidate, Marine Biology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

〇Christianne Izumigawa, Computer Engineer, Naval Information WarfareCenter 

〇Christina Felicitas, RF/Microwave Design Engineer, NorthrupGrumman,Redeondo Beach

Acomment from a student: On that day,scientists and research students of the university taught us the fun of sciencethrough various experiments and observation.  I was particularly interested in theexperiment that explained how rockets are able to fly.  This was explained straightforwardly bycomparing balloons to beach balls.  Atthe lecture, I was able to learn both the fun of space engineering and thenatural English spoken by native speakers, which was a valuable experience forme. ― Sakura KUBO, Class 106
         

October 28th, 2021 

The data marketing education program that we have been working on forseven months with three companies ― FUJI, SEKI, TRUE DATA― has finally reached the final round.

On Tuesday, October 26th, our school wasvisited by four representatives of FUJI Co. Ltd., including Director ONISHIFumikazu; three representatives of SEKI Co. Ltd., including C.E.O. SEKIHirotaka; and one representative of TRUE DATA Co. Ltd., Deputy Director ofAnalytical Solutions KARASUDANI Masahiro.

   On this day, the final announcement wasgiven.  From the purchase data, we firstdefined four target groups: group 1 as “elderly housewives who buy in bulk”,group 2 as “typical housewives of average age who shop in the morning”, group 3as “customers who like new products”, and group 4 as “those with long workinghours”.

   By reading trends from this data, wesubsequently derived four product groups: group1 as “cultured red sea breamcaught fresh in the morning”, group 2 as “fresh and seasonal vegetables”, group3 as “new snack products”, and group 4 as “karaage(Japanese fried chicken),shochu (Japanese spirit) cocktails, raw vegetable salad, and delicatessen.”

   By taking these factors into consideration,we implemented measures at FUJI’s “Fujiwara” store aimed to increase theirsales.  We compared the purchase data atthe store from before and after the introduction of these measures using an“analysis tree.”

   In response to each presentation, questionswere asked by YANO Kyoko, MIYAWAKI Masami and IWAMOTO Ryo from the SalesPlanning and Marketing department of FUJI Co. Ltd.; and by KARASUDANI Masahiro,Deputy Director of Analytical Solutions of TRUE DATA Co. Ltd.

   After the presentations of all the groupswere finished, we received comments from Director ONISHI Fumikazu of FUJI Co.Ltd., from President SEKI Hirotaka of Seki Co. Ltd., and from C.E.O. YONEKURAMasayuki of TRUE DATA Co. Ltd. Selected quotes include: “This effort does notseek a single correct answer,” “The important thing is how to make use of what younoticed in the process,” “It is important to talk not based on intuitions, buton evidence and data,” “It is crucial to reflect on what to do next,” “Theknow-how of what was and was not effective accumulates as data,” “On thisprogram, I think came in contact with the way of thinking of working people,and learned from it,” and “We create the future with data and wisdom.”

   This time the students gave a wonderfulpresentation as a culmination of the program, which started in March.  We would like to thank FUJI Co. Ltd., SEKICo. Ltd. and TRUE DATA Co. Ltd. for providing us with such a valuableopportunity.  I think that the studentswill make good use of this experience to further deepen their learning atuniversity, and revitalize Ehime prefecture in various ways by playing activeroles as human resources. 

   Author’s opinion: “Although I have some regrets, I am happy to have been able to make thefinal presentation successful in this way. Furthermore, we are grateful for the opportunity when we can learn “datamarketing.”  I am sure that thisexperience will be a great help when I work on the data marketing project.”― 208 KOIKE Shogo
 
       

Reiwa Year 3, on Sunday October 24th,we discussed the experiment at data with Waipahu High School students in Hawaii(4 students), who are conducting international research on purification ofwater, for a period of one hour. Uwajima Higashi High School Students（6 students）,who have engaged in international relationwith Hawaii.  After they explained the experimentaldata from each country, a question and answer session was held.  Our High School students asked questions proactivelyabout the followings: COD value increase at the downstream in Kapakahi River inHawaii after rain, and the reason why TH value tends to increase, and so on.  This research will be summarized in a paperand exhibited in a domestic contest.  Fromnow on, we will discuss the topic again, continuing to conduct experiments forthe international contest held next year in December.

Impression:This discussion was a valuable experiencefor me.  It was the first time for me tospeak English outside of class.  So I wasvery nervous.  However, Uwajima HigashiHigh School students were smiling and friendly.  I was surprised to see that they are alsousing plants to tackle water issues.  I thoughtit was an interesting idea.  We'll do ourbest, too. ―　Kaio Matsumoto, Class 109