On August 25, 2023, the Summer School for UTokyo & Google Kids 2023 was held for children of the University of Tokyo faculty, staff and students under the sponsorship of the Office for Gender Equality.
As a work-life balance measure for members working and studying at the University, UTokyo’s Office for Gender Equality planned and held summer schools for the elementary school children of university members, utilizing the University’s resources. This year, as part of the “Partnership between the UTokyo and Google for the realization of an AI symbiotic future society” (https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/ja/press/z1702_00007.html), a summer school was held at the Google Japan Shibuya office.
A total of 35 elementary school students, 22 from UTokyo and 13 from Google, participated.
The Summer School for UTokyo & Google Kids 2023
The 4th graders and younger were given astronomy lectures by graduate students from UTokyo’s Graduate School of Science’s Department of Astronomy who are part of the Astronomy Promotion Project “Tenpura”, while the older children were given programming workshops by Google employees.
The 5th and 6th graders rejoined the main group before lunch and experienced a trip through space in a simulator using the free 3D celestial simulator, Mitaka. According to the questionnaires answered by parents, some of the comments from the children after they returned home included, “I thought that working in space sounds interesting” and “I heard that the space simulator can be used at home, so I want to try it”.
In the afternoon, the UTokyo Science Communication Circle, CAST, conducted experiments and crafts on light and electricity. Even during the break time, the children seemed to be very interested in the experiments, such as trying to enter a box made of polarizing plates.
From the answers to the parent’s questionnaire, it was mentioned that some children had explained what they had made in the crafts and talked about how the time passed so quickly on the train on the way home. “They were excited to tell us what they actually made and what they learned on the day. They seemed to be more interested in science.” and other comments were received from parents.
Finally, the 1st-4th and 5th-6th graders were divided again to attend a drawing class given by a Google employee and a “calligraphy diversity workshop” using sumi ink given by a graduate student in the doctoral course in educational psychology at the Graduate School of Education, UTokyo.
UTokyo’s Office for Gender Equality has been developing nursery schools and other facilities for faculty, staff, and students raising children on campus. However, after commencing elementary school, working parents need to secure a place to leave their children after school, especially during long vacations and on-campus events on weekends and holidays.
When we conducted a survey of the parents of the participants on how their elementary school children spend their summer vacation, we received the following responses: “The after-school programs take care of my children until the evening, but parents are busier than usual with homework follow-up and making lunch boxes during vacation”, “they refuse to go to after-school programs”, “at home, they try to spend hours watching TV, YouTube and playing games”, and ” I would like to take them to events at museums and art galleries to give them experiences they would not normally have, but it is difficult due to conflicts with work hours”, etc.
Faculty members raising children may feel guilty about working long hours and may have difficulty finding time for study and research. We would like to continue to think about a framework to support faculty and staff with children of elementary school age and above, as well as infants and toddlers, while taking advantage of the resources of the University.
（Written by Madoka Nakano, Project Assistant Professor at the Office for Gender Equality）
