High school students compete in science presentations (28 November 2015)

On 28 November, Kyoto University held a science presentation competition, "Kyoto University Science Festival 2015: Battle of the Scientific Minds", at its Clock Tower Centennial Hall.

These annual events are organized in collaboration with the University's 12 "high school-university connection and collaboration" agreement partners -- the boards of education of Kyoto and Tokushima Cities, Osaka, Hyogo, Shiga, Kyoto, Mie, Ishikawa, Tokushima, and Fukui Prefectures and Tokyo Metropolis, and the government of Nara Prefecture.

Participating were teams of high school students selected by their respective boards of education. In the competition, the students shared the results of their tankyu katsudo (investigative activities) with a wide audience, and listened to each other's presentations, which exemplified different regions, traditions, and values, helping the participants expand their views and learn to appreciate diversity.

Presentations were evaluated based on five criteria -- structure, topic originality, potential for further research, overall quality, and performance -- with those rated highest awarded the President and Vice-President Prizes.

Following the opening address and keynote lecture by President Juichi Yamagiwa, participants in the 2015 competition delivered their creatively designed presentations on the projects they had been working on over the past months as part of their schools' tankyu katsudo classes.

After each presentation, the students received feedback -- including tough questions and words of encouragement -- from faculty members of Kyoto University's Graduate Schools of Science and Engineering. They appeared nervous as they listened to the faculty's comments, but expressed their determination to take their projects to the next level.

The event came to a close after President Yamagiwa and Vice-President Tetsuya Aruga shared their impressions of the competition and presented the winning teams with the prize certificates, trophies, and plaques.

Many of the attending KU faculty members expressed surprise at the high level of research involved in all of the projects presented.

The organizers hope that the Science Festival will help participating high school students with their transition from secondary to higher education, while further motivating them in their investigative activities through the experience of presenting to a large audience and receiving feedback from university faculty.

A list of participating schools and their presentation topics is provided below.

Participants and prize winners

Winner of the President Prize

• Kyoto Prefectural Momoyama High School, "Investigating the dopamine polymerization mechanism behind the development of black spots on banana peels"

Winners of the Vice-President Prizes

• Kyoto Municipal Horikawa High School, "Mechanism behind the variability of R Coronae Borealis"
• Tokyo Metropolitan Koishikawa Secondary School "Latency dependence of the coefficient of static friction"

Other participating schools and their presentation topics

• Osaka Municipal Tennoji High School, "Mathematical expressions of the tension and fundamental frequency of a rubber string"
• Shiga Prefectural Zeze High School, "Order of 10 modulo a prime number"
• Hyoto Prefectural Tatsuno Senior High School, "Changes in glucose levels during the amazake (sweet, non-alcoholic sake ) production process"
• Nara Prefectural Seisho High School, "Exploring the roots of Japanese peaches and gourds based on the archaeological evidence of plant usage"
• Mie Prefectural Ise High School, "Seven years of research on the flight of cicadas: exploring industrial applications of natural science"
• Ishikawa Prefectural Nanao High School, "The swelling at the center of a milk-drop coronet"
• Tokushima Prefectural Jonan High School, "Effects of lithium chloride on planarian head regeneration"
• Fukui Prefectural Fujishima Senior High School, "Investigating seismic faults in Fukui Prefecture IV"