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Report】"Global Environment School for High School Students" Commissioned by Yokkaichi City was held.
summary
ICETT held the "Global Environment School" for high school students as a project commissioned by Yokkaichi City. In FY2024, the theme was "Aiming for Nature Positive: Let's Think about Biodiversity Conservation," and the program was held over eight days from July 29 to August 5, 2024.
Background and Objectives
During the summer vacation every year, high school students from Tianjin, China, Yokkaichi's friendship city, and Long Beach, USA, Yokkaichi's sister city, are invited to Yokkaichi for training and exchange of opinions on environmental issues, etc. with Yokkaichi high school students. The purpose of this event is to deepen mutual understanding and to encourage environmental conservation activities in each city. This year was the 16th time the event was held.
Contents
During the week-long program, participants visited various facilities and companies. The main places visited were as follows
- Yokkaichi Pollution and Environmental Miraikan
- municipal museum
- Yoshizaki Coast
(Kusunoki District Community Development Study Committee Chairman: Shoichi Mori)
(Chairman: Nao Shimoda, NPO Yokkaichi Sea Turtle Preservation Society) - Mie Prefectural Forest
(Hiroshi Tange, vice principal, Kuwana High School, Mie Prefectural Government) - Kabusecha Cafe
- Toba Aquarium
- Grand Yokkaichi Festival
In addition to the above program, the participants attended a lecture by Associate Professor Noro of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Yokkaichi University to learn the basics of biodiversity conservation and conducted fieldwork on the university campus. The participants collected sensor cameras and checked their images, and were able to confirm that a wide variety of organisms live in the familiar places where we live. We were also able to gain a deeper understanding of the problem of invasive alien species as an issue that concerns people around the world, such as the possibility that creatures that are rare in one's own country may be subject to extermination in another country.
Another purpose of this project is to deepen cultural international exchange. With the cooperation of the Yokkaichi Commercial High School Flower Arrangement Club, participants experienced flower arrangement. Participants were able to learn about traditional Japanese culture and engage in international exchange with high school students of the same age.
At the "Results Presentation," where they presented the outcomes of their week-long training, the participating high school students were divided into two mixed teams from each city and proposed what they would do to promote biodiversity conservation in their respective cities in the future. After the presentations, Professor Akiko Hasegawa of Nagoya University's Graduate School of Environmental Studies gave a review and a lecture titled "Nature Positive - Our Actions" to deepen the understanding of biodiversity conservation with the participating citizens.
Results and Prospects
Through the curriculum, the participants not only acquired knowledge on biodiversity conservation, but also showed significant growth by proposing specific environmental conservation efforts they would like to undertake in their respective cities to achieve these goals.
We hope that the high school students, who are the future leaders of their respective cities, will continue their exchanges through the friendships formed at this Global Environment School, and that in the near future they will be active as human resources to improve environmental problems in the friendship cities of Tianjin and Long Beach and Yokkaichi, and to serve as bridges of friendship between the sister cities of Long Beach and Yokkaichi.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to all those who have contributed to this training program.
