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Mitsui SASUGAKU Academy

Report: Mitsui SASUGAKU Academy 2023

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Participating school Theme Program outline Target grade/year Number of participants
Toride Nishi Elementary School Decarbonization
  • The children were given the opportunity to develop their own ideas for decarbonization through the use of SASUGAKU tools.
  • A representative from e-dash, a Mitsui group company that provides comprehensive support for efforts to visualize and reduce CO2 emissions, visited the school to explain to children how they can calculate CO2 emissions themselves.
  • Created a platform for online communications between children, university students, and Mitsui employees looking to share information about CO2 emissions reductions, including in response to questions asked by participating children.
  • Quantified CO2 reductions achieved through initiatives such as tree planting and the composting of food left over from school lunches.
  • The children entered the Zero Carbon Challenge Cup, sponsored by the Japan Network for Climate Change Action (JNCCA), and won the Minister of the Environment's Gold Prize in the Junior/Kids' category.
 4th-year elementary school students 35 participants
Satoegakuen Elementary School Unprecedented biotopes Assisted in producing ideas that can be used to solve problems related to "unprecedented biotopes." 5th-year elementary school students 76 participants
Satoegakuen Elementary School Graduation thesis Assisted in establishing and thoroughly researching graduation thesis topics. 6th-year elementary school students 90 participants
Mitsui Group & Japanese Red Cross Society, Red Cross Youth Cooperation Project Red Cross Youth activities for a sustainable future SASUGAKU Academy was held as part of the Mitsui Group & Japanese Red Cross Society's Red Cross Youth Collaboration Project in commemoration of the 350th anniversary of the Mitsui Group.
Videos were used to introduce the business activities of the eight Mitsui Group companies that contribute to "climate change" and "peace education," which serve as the themes of FY2023 international exchange program, and with the aim of contributing to the realization of "Red Cross Youth activities for a sustainable future." Participants brainstormed ideas, linked them to specific actions and then presented those ideas. 		Youth who are in high school or older from Japan and nine other countries and regions. 65 participants
Tokyo City University Business ideas Participated as a judge in a virtual "business idea contest" that also consisted of a series of activities intended to help inspire participating students, such as hackathons and brainstorming sessions. 3rd-year university students About 100 participants

Overview of each of the two participating schools

Satoe Gakuen Elementary School

Participants:
90 elementary school 6th graders from 3 classes
Plenary lecture:
To help students formulate and deepen the research theme of their graduation thesis, we provided input on the SASUGAKU methods and advice from a global perspective and from the standpoint of commercialization.
  1. Research of thesis topics and deep dive into ideas using SASUGAKU Compass.
  2. Introduction of our initiatives in Africa.
  3. Plenary review.

Toride-Nishi Elementary School

<Part 1>
Participants:
35 elementary school 4th graders
Plenary lecture:
In the Toride City Sustainability Learning Project, we used the Sasugaku method to help generate ideas in the creation of decarbonization actions.
  1. Introduction of Sasugaku and Sasugaku tools.
  2. Discuss decarbonization actions.
  3. Introduction of e-dash's business.
<Part 2>
  1. Reflection on the decarbonization activities and visualizing CO2 reductions achieved through decarbonization activities.
  2. Introduction of our group's business activities that contribute to decarbonization.
  3. Discussion on activities for the next year.