SAKURA SCIENCE High School Program Group 2
Learning About the Arctic and Antarctica at the National Institute of Polar Research
On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 17, high school students from South Korea, Pakistan, and Peru in the second group of the SAKURA SCIENCE High School Program (SSHP) visited the National Institute of Polar Research.
Firstly, there was a lecture given by Professor Enomoto Hiroyuki, Deputy Director of the Institute. The students were given an explanation on the importance and results of research such as "why is polar research necessary?" "global warming is causing rapid climate and environmental changes in the Arctic and Antarctica" and "polar observation and research can tell us what the future of the Earth might look like," as well as on Japan's Antarctic observations at the Showa Base.
In addition, the high school students also asked a lot of good questions and gave comments like "why is global warming amplified in the polar regions?" "Isn't it necessary to inform the public more about the current situation in the polar regions where global warming is concentrated?" Even after the lecture, there were high school students who were eager to ask more questions, so we were able to see their high level of interest in global warming.
Thereafter, the students visited the Polar Science Museum next door. The high school students were intrigued by the snowmobiles used in Antarctic observation, the appearance of the Showa base, the number of meteorites collected in Antarctica, and the images of the Northern Lights. The first thing that really caught their eyes was the ice that was actually brought back from Antarctica. The high school students thought about the Antarctic world on this hot day in May, such as immediately checking how it felt in their hands, listening to the sound of bubbles popping from the cup that held the ice.
