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TechnoScience Cafe テクノサイエンスカフェ

Activities Reportactivities "Techno-Science Cafe"

• August 05, 2023

  The 34th UTokyo Techno-Science Café’s Report

  

  "Experience Cutting-edge Research in Chemistry, Life Sciences, and Physics."
  On August 5, 2023, the 34th University of Tokyo Techno Science Café took place. This year, as a special program for high school students, the theme was "Experience Cutting-edge Research in Chemistry, Life Sciences, and Physics." In this event, half a dozen high school students participated in workshops within three fields—chemistry, life sciences, and physics.　

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• November 03, 2022

  Techno-Science Café’s Extra Edition Report

  

  Techno-Science Café’s Extra Edition
  Engineering x Gal
  "Engineering Onimori Technology↑↑ Wireless Power Supply Champagne Tower 2022 Legend in Shibuya!!”
  
  
  
  

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• October 19, 2019

  The 32th UTokyo Techno-Science Café Report

  

  The 32th Techno-science café, “Construction Work Using LEGO Brick” was held on October 19, 2019. About 30 elementary school students participated in the event.
  At the beginning of this event, Prof. Gondo from Department of Architecture gave a lecture about building construction and the relationship between architecture and LEGO brick. Showing a product of the University of Tokyo LEGO Club, some buildings constructed with box unit construction, he explained intelligibly that they have some things in common, solving problems in construction site and building things with LEGO brick.
  

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• August 03, 2019

  The 31th UTokyo Techno-Science Café Report

  

  The 31st Tokyo University Techno-Science Café, "Useful Surface Science to Know -Science of Wetting-" was held on August 3, 2019. About 30 elementary and junior high school student participated. First, Shunto Arai from department of applied physics gave a lecture on the surface of materials. As an introduction, he spoke that most of what we see are surfaces and surfaces of materials are harder to examine than contents of those. The children seemed to listen to the wonders of surfaces. He gave an example that when a small bottle is turned over, the content spills when it is alcohol, but it does not when it is water, after telling that the smaller materials, the larger surface areas. The children seemed to understand the importance that a mouth of a bottle is small and seemed interested in the surface tension of water. After the lecture, we experimented on the surface tension of water. The children made small plastic boats and watched that they did not move on the water. On the other hand, the boats with adhesive on the back moved slowly on the water. A child wondered about the phenomenon. I explained to him that it was because the solvent of adhesive dissolved in the water behind the small boat and the surface tension changed slightly. Another child experimented with a larger boat to watch what would happen. We also had an interesting experiment where we watched and touched polymer films that move spontaneously on a water surface due to the difference of surface tension of water and the solvent.

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• August 02, 2019

  The 30th UTokyo Techno-Science Café Report

  

  The 30th Techno-science café, “What is the strength? Let’s make a pasta bridge” was held on August 2, 2019. About 30 elementary and junior high school students participated in the event. At the beginning of this event, Lecturer Hatano from Department of Mechanical Engineering gave a lecture, whose title was “How to design things”. In order to consider how to design a strong bridge, she explained the strength of materials. After that, she explained with quizzes how to use pasta as materials. The children heard her lecture and felt the strength by touching pasta. Some children took notes eagerly.

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• July 31, 2017

  The 25th UTokyo Techno-Science Café Report

  

  The 25th Techno-Science Café was held on July 31, 2017. About 30 students, mainly elementary school students, participated in this event. The program was basically composed of two main parts. First, Assoc. prof. Kitazawa, Department of Systems Innovation, gave an explanation about how ships can float on the water by using simple experimental equipment and fundamental scientific principles of ships. Second, participants visited Hull Form Testing Tank in the campus and they saw how the hull forms are tested.
  

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• July 28, 2017

  The 24th UTokyo Techno-Science Café Report

  

  On July 28, 2017, the 24th Techno-Science Cafe was held at the building 11 of the Faculty of Engineering, the University of Tokyo. About 50 children from elementary school to junior high school participated in this event.
  

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• December 11, 2016

  The 23rd UTokyo Techno-Science Café Report

  

  The 23rd Techno-Science Café was held on December 11, 2016. About 20 students mainly from elementary school participated in this event. The program consisted of two parts. In the former half of the event, Assoc. prof. Mae from the department of architecture gave a lecture on the energy consumption in homes such as gas and electricity, including a workshop and a simple experiment.
  In the latter half, the participants learned the ways renovating their house to improve the housing performance by playing sugoroku.

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• August 10, 2016

  The UTokyo Techno-Science Café Special Version Report

  

  The 22nd Techno-Science Café, “Design and Manufacturing” was held again on August 10, 2016. About 60 students from elementary school to high school participated in the event. At the beginning of this event, Assoc. Prof. Nagato gave the children the lecture about product design and manufacturing. He also gave them quizzes about product design and manufacturing. The participants answered actively.

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• July 25, 2016

  The 22nd UTokyo Techno-Science Café Report

  

  The 22nd Techno-Science Café, “Design and Manufacturing” was held on July 25, 2016. About 30 students from elementary school to high school participated in the event. At the beginning of this event, Prof. Nakagawa from department of mechanical engineering gave a lecture about design. In the lecture, he held some hands on activities. For example, he made us listen to the music and create shapes from images of the music. Students created many different shapes with great individuality.

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• March 19, 2016

  The 21st UTokyo Techno-Science café Report

  

  The 21st Techno-science café, “Let’s fly out to the Space!” was held on March 19, 2016. About 50 elementary and junior high school students participated in the event. At the beginning of this event, Prof. Nakasuka from department of aeronautics and astronautics gave a lecture, the title was “Basic Space Engineering”. He told us the mechanism of the satellites and rockets, and the space development. He also gave us quizzes about space engineering. After that, Ms. Naoko Yamazaki, who is a one-time astronaut of JAXA, gave a lecture, the title was “Activities of astronauts”. It was a precious opportunity for us to know the actual experience of going into space or training. Not only children but also adults listened attentively to her lecture.
  

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• May 07, 2015

  The 18th UTokyo Techno-Science café Report

  

  The 18th Techno-science cafe was held on March 7, 2015, and the theme was "Making Safe Cities: Crime Prevention in the Community". Nearly 40 elementary and junior high school students participated in the event.
  At the beginning and end of this event, we heard a lecture by Prof. Hino, who belongs to the Department of Urban Engineering. He first explained what urban engineering is, and after that he introduced his field of research with various facts and examples, such as the unexpected reality of the number of crimes in Japan (which has, in fact, declined recently), an analysis of environments which prompt criminal behavior, and the design of an environment for crime prevention. Although the lectures were not very long, they were simple and easy for children to understand.
  

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• November 10, 2013

  The 14th UTokyo Techno-Science café Report１

  

  The 14th Techno-science Cafe was held on November 10. The theme was "The frontier technology, innovating medical research and development". Forty one elementary school and junior high school students gathered.
  Firstly, Prof. Yuichi Tei belonging to both the faculty of engineering and faculty of medicine, researching regenerative medicine/tissue engineering, gave a lecture. He explained about tetra gel, which can be used as cartilage, flexible connective tissue in human body, and introduced custom-made artificial bones fabricated by 3D printer using familiar terms. Children quietly listened to the talk, and after the lecture, they enthusiastically asked many questions. Even the university students and experts were impressed by their questions.
  Next, children were divided into 6 groups, where they learned about gels and the functions of a three-dimensional (3D) printer through two workshops including a simple experiment and answering quizzes which university students planned.
  Recently, 3D printers are gathering attention as is evident from TV programs or feature articles. In general, we mold or scrape when making models. On the other hand, 3D printers can “print” these models by piling up plane surfaces, which enable them to make elaborate and inflated structures in succession.
  We tried hard to make children understand these laws, and finally we came up with the idea to show the real 3D printer.
  On the event day, everyone there got excited to see the real printer making the original key chain with the logo of “SC” (science café). Showing children elaborate figures and artificial bones made by the printer could made them understand that the printer can make anything.
  For the first time in the history of the science café, we used a live coverage system using “Facetime”. It received a good response from parents as they could see their child’s expressions. We learned much from children’s eagerness to learn. We’re looking forward to see more students joining the science cafe and making discoveries.
  

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• July 28, 2013

  The 13th UTokyo Techno-Science café Report１

  

  The 13th Techno-science café was held on 28th July. The theme was “The batteries and the future of electric vehicle”. At first, children took a test ride of electric car sold by Mitsubishi Motors. They experienced a smooth ride. Next, Prof. Atsuo Yamada in the department of Chemical System Engineering and Mr. Kenichi Tsutsumi from Mitsubishi Motors talked to children about the frontier of lithium-ion batteries and the development of electric cars. Children were exposed to the academic study and practical application of batteries.

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• July 28, 2013

  The 13th UTokyo Techno-Science café Report２

  

  Techno Science Cafe ‘The Future of Battery and EV’ was held on 28th, July, 2013 in the University of Tokyo.
  More than 40 children-mainly from upper grades of the elementary school joined.
  Firstly, Mr. Ken-ichi Tsutsumi from MITSUBISHI Motors delivered a speech about Electric Vehicles (EV). The history, the formation and also the future of EV were introduced. There were many new issues that surprised the children in the speech, such as: actually the history of EV is much longer than that of gasoline car.
  Secondly, Prof. Yamada from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Tokyo delivered a speech about battery. The principle of how batteries work, researches of batteries made now, and even the hot issues of energy were delivered easily to understand. Not only the children, but the parents were also very into the speech.
  After the speeches, a chance was given by MITSUBISHI Motors to ride on ‘iMiEV’-EV made by MITSUBISHI Motors - around the campus. Although it was only a short period, both the children and the parents experienced how fast and silent EV was while running.
  Finally, group-work workshop was held by university students. Children were divided into 6 groups, and they had fun answering quizzes about batteries and also making batteries themselves.
  In the quiz corner, they learned many that they didn’t know. Such as: there are over 4000 types of batteries in the world, and the first person who made battery was a Japanese, etc. Later, in order to let the children know that people are also electrolyte, an activity was held that: 5 children were asked to hold spoons and a piece of foil on their hands. And when they were connected by wires, they made the music box sang. The children were very excited. At last, children were asked to make a battery from the materials in everyday life-charcoal, salt water and aluminum foil. They were asked to use the batteries they made to spin the propellers. Through this, the children learned about the principle of battery by making it by themselves.
  When preparing for this Techno Science Café, we found that there were many contents that might be difficult for the children to understand. So we thought a lot about how to make it easier for the children to understand. When the program actually started, we found that the children were far more eager in learning new things than we have thought. We felt very happy too.
  We, as university students, have also found many new knowledge about batteries, even we are using them every day. Moreover, we learned much from the children’s attitude towards learning. We ourselves have gained many from this event.
  We hope that this kind of event can call for the children’s will to develop the world of science. See you next time.
  
  
  
  

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• March 24, 2013

  The 11th UTokyo Techno-Science café Report２

  

  On the 24th of March 2013 was held a TechnoScience Café "Engineering Dojo" at the University of Tokyo. 　
  Numerous elementary school and junior high school students gathered early on that Sunday morning and listened quietly to the speeches of the organizers. After asking a lot of questions, the children followed students of the
  Shibata-Mita laboratory to the Takeda building. There, Professor Mita explained to them what he was doing in his laboratory. He also taught them the basics of electronics, and the children were able to understand the principles behind electrical circuits that are hard to understand even for University students. The children were then divided in two teams.
  

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• March 24, 2013

  The 11th UTokyo Techno-Science café Report１

  

  The 11th Todai Techno-Science café was held on 24th Mar. This time its theme was “Engineering school-an introduction to manufacturing-.” In the beginning of the event, Prof. Shinji Suzuki introduced the faculty of Engineering in the University of Tokyo. Thereafter, Mr. Steven Hahn from the Boeing Company suddenly started his presentation in English. Children there get puzzled hearing him…but then he switched to fluent Japanese! To tell the truth, he had been working in Japan for some years. That created a more relaxed atmosphere.

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