Public Relations

Public Relations

The 12th ICHARM Open Day held online, first in its history
第 12 回「ICHARM Open Day」 ～初めての Web 開催～
4 月 14 日 に 第 12 回 目 と な る「ICHARM Open Day」を初めて Web方式で開催しました。竹園高等学校の生徒 81 人、並木中等教育学校の生徒 28 人がオンラインで参加しました。
「ICHARM Open Day」 は、 毎 年 4
月の科学技術週間の行事として、一昨年までは両校の生徒が ICHARM を訪 問し、ICHARM で 研 修 中の 博 士・修士課程の学生との国際交流の機会として対面方式で開催してきました。
昨年はコロナ禍で中止し、今年も土木研究所の科学技術週間一般公開は中止となりましたが、「ICHARM OpenDay」は Web 方式で開催しました。
一昨年までの対面方式では、各国紹介のポスターを前に博士・修士課程の学生 1 人が 10 人程度の生徒から質問を受けていましたが、Web 方式では学生 1 人が 100 人を超える生徒から質問を受けることで質問が出にくいことが予想されたことから、一昨年までよりも学生の発表時間を減らし、双方向となる質疑応答の時間を可能な限り確保しました。また、質問が出やすいように、両校の先生に事前に学生の発表資料を送付し，生徒が予習し、質問を事前に考えて参加してもらうように依頼しました。
当日は、小池センター長の基調講演「Climate Change and Floods」 に 続き、７カ国（トンガ、マレーシア、ミャンマー、バングラデシュ、ブータン、モーリシャス、エチオピア）の博士・修士過程の学生 10 人が東から西の順に、各国の地理、歴史、文化、水災害の特徴などを発表しました。７カ国のうち、トンガ、モーリシャスからの 2 名は、コロナ禍で来日できていないため、本国からのオンライン参加となりました。学生は、両校の生徒から「水道水は直接飲めるか？」「災害復旧にかかる時間は？」「災害時の非常食は？」などの質問を英語で受けました。
一昨年までの対面方式では、生徒は 3 か国程度のポスターを回るのが限界でしたが、今回は、７カ国の学生全員の発表を聴講することができました。また、対面方式では引率の先生のみの参加でしたが、今回は在校のまま参加できたため、両校で 9人と多くの先生が参加できました。
一方、Web 方式のため、生徒の質問の意図が学生に通じにくい場面がありました。また、特定の生徒が何回も質問する場面も見られ、質問ができた生徒の割合は、対面方式に比べて少なくなりました。
Web 方式では、対面方式におけるポスター準備・掲示の必要がなくなりましたが、来年は、Web 方式を継続するか、対面方式を復活させるか、開催方式への両校の要望や社会状況も考慮して開催したいと考えています。

The 12th ICHARM Open Day was held on April 14, 2021. The event took place online forthe first time in its 12th history, gathering 81 students from Takezono High School and28 from Namiki Secondary School.
The ICHARM Open Day is an annual event held every April during the Science andTechnology Week. Up to 2019, local school students visited ICHARM and enjoyed faceto-face interaction with international students studying in the master’s or doctoral
program at ICHARM. In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, the event wascanceled. This year, although other open-house events hosted by the Public Works
Research Institute during the Science and Technology Week were canceled, ICHARMdecided to hold the yearly event online.
When the ICHARM Open Day is held in person, local students are usually divided into
small groups of around ten and have an opportunity to ask questions to a graduate
student of ICHARM in front of a poster about their country. However, this year’s OpenDay was decided to be held in a webinar-style format, in which over 100 junior high andhigh school students would be watching each speaker delivering a presentation fromICHARM. Worrying that not many students would raise a hand for questions in such asituation, the staff in charge of the event decided to allocate less time for the presentations and more time for the question-and-answer session. They also sent presentationmaterials to teachers of both schools prior to the Open Day and asked them to havetheir students look at the materials and think of questions in advance.
The Open Day began with a keynote lecture entitled“Climate Change and Floods” by Executive Director
KOIKE Toshio. Then, ten graduate students ofICHARM from seven different countries (Tonga,Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Mauritius,and Ethiopia) spoke in an east-to-west order about
their countries from various aspects, including
geography, history, culture, and water-related disasters. Among them, two master’s students attended
the event online from their home countries, Tonga Presentation by Ph.D. student from Ethiopia
ICHARM Open Day 2021 参加者
and Mauritius, because they had not been able toエチオピア博士課程学生の発表
come to Japan due to the pandemic. Junior high andhigh school students asked the speakers many questions all in English, such as “Is it safe
to drink tap water in your country?” “How long does it take to recover from a disaster?”and “What kind of emergency food would you have in the event of a disaster?”
When the Open Day was held in person, each group of local students could stop at only
a few poster presentations to talk with a graduate student of ICHARM. In a webinar-styleformat, however, all students were able to watch all presentations. Moreover, though
only a few teachers came to ICHARM to attend their students when the event took place
in a regular way, nine from the two schools together participated because they could do
so while at school.
On the other hand, there were a few times when the speakers had a hard time figuring
out what junior high or high school students wanted to know. Also, because the samestudents asked questions repeatedly, other students did not have as many chances to
do so in the online event as in the regular face-to-face events.
Compared with the regular-style Open Day, the online event required less preparation;
graduate students and the staff did not have to make and put up posters for presentation, for example. Considering such advantages and disadvantages, the requests fromlocal schools about how the event should be held, and other social conditions, ICHARM
will plan the next year’s event, including whether it should be held online or in person.

ICHARM Newsletter Volume 16 No. 2・July 2021

(Written by KOBAYASHI Hajime)26