Activity Report of Open Application Program 2021 vol.13 (Alternative Online)
Kozu High School (East Asia-Pacific High School Student Online Forum)
A report from Osaka Prefecture Kozu High School
This program was scheduled to take place in Osaka, inviting high school students from Taiwan and South Korea, but due to COVID-19 it was not possible to invite students from overseas. An online international exchange program with new contents and a new approach was held instead on January 10 for high school students in South Korea, the Philippines and Japan. The number of participating students from each high school included 21 students from Iri High School, 55 students from Iri Women's High School and 23 students from Wansan Women's High School in South Korea, 25 students from the Angelicum University's affiliated high school in the Philippines and from Japan there were 23 students from our school and 5 students from the collaborating Otemon Gakuin Otemae Senior High School with a grand total of 152 participating students.
The topic of the online exchange was mainly about the global issues involved in SDGs and climate change. For the first part of the program, a lecture by Professor Sudo Atsushi (Faculty of Science and Engineering, Kindai University), titled "Energy for SDGs" was given. After that, presentations on environmental and scientific research activities done by the students from each country were given followed by the reports on SDGs from four groups. In the third part of the program, Professor Oh Chang-hwan of South Korea (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Jeonbuk National University) gave a lecture on climate change entitled " The global warming crisis will be resolved when we become happy. "
In the lecture presented at the beginning, the professor talked about the importance of looking at the features of alternative energy in a varied but also specific way when dealing with the energy issues involved in STGs. The lecture presented at the third part of the program was about the major issues regarding sudden climate change and giving ideas about practical measures to prevent it. These two lectures provided important and various tips for students on what they should consider and do in the future. We have received some comments from the high school students in each country that they were glad to be able to attend the lectures. We have also heard from students that they were glad to be able to see what high school students from their own generation in each country were doing during the second part of the program where environmental and scientific research activities from each country were shown.
We have received the following comments from a survey about the program as shown below.
(Japan)
"I really enjoyed it. All the high school students from each country are conducting research at a very high level, which I want to keep in mind for future activities."
"It was interesting to see the various ways of thinking by all the different students and I think that it was a valuable experience to be able to share a conversation with students who even living in different countries."
(South Korea)
"It was great to have the opportunity to talk to high school students from different countries. To me it felt like that even if we live in different regions, we all live in the same world and that we are not that different at all."
(Philippines)
"I was very happy to hear that our research became a part of this forum. The lecture also provided me with valuable knowledge and the courage to take a step towards change."
With more than 100 computers connecting to the same online exchange program from six different schools in three different countries, we weren't sure if it was possible to hold this program at the start. However, we believe that we were able to have a program which allowed the participating students from around the world to participate in the same lectures together, share their thoughts on the latest global issues and fully enjoy their time interacting with each other through online exchange. We will continue to make efforts to increase the students' interest in international exchange and scientific research by continuing to create opportunities for online exchange to the best of our ability going forward.
