18th "Chemical Research for High School Students: To Experience Cutting-Edge Research at First Hand" (25 July 2015)

On 25 July 2015, the Institute for Chemical Research hosted the 18th "Chemical Research for High School Students" workshop.

This series, which has been held annually during the summer holidays, is aimed at providing high school students with opportunities to learn, through first-hand experience of cutting-edge research, how profound and interesting science, especially chemistry, can be. Despite the blistering sun in the wake of a large-scale typhoon, the 2015 workshop attracted 71 participants from around the country.

The morning program started with a briefing by Professor Norihiro Tokitoh, Director of the Institute. Next, Professor Motonari Uesugi from the Institute delivered a lecture entitled "Graphical Formation of Drugs", which discussed the poster "One Poster in Every Household -- Graphical Formation of Drugs" published by Kyoto University and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in April 2015. Professor Uesugi explained the process whereby the poster was designed and produced, and also touched on the basics of pharmaceutical chemistry. Following the lecture, "Chemistry of Life", a massive open online course delivered by the Institution since 2014 through an "edX" platform, was introduced to the audience. The participating students saw people in their age group, all around the world, studying the course with great enthusiasm and enjoyment. In the afternoon program, participating students were divided into nine groups to visit nine research sites. Guided by resident researchers, participants toured large-scale research facilities and took part in cutting-edge chemical experiments, such as synthesizing functional organic molecules used for organic EL, and sequencing the DNA of thale cress ( Arabidopsis thaliana ).

Some of the graduate students who assisted high school students at the sites were former participants in this workshop program, indicating that young students who will lead the next generation in science certainly learn how interesting and profound science can be from their predecessors through participation in this series of workshops.