Our Aims
Young Scientist Partnerships open up to post-16 school students in both countries enlivening experiences of science and its application:
- as a real life challenge where schoolwork is given meaning and context, answers are not known, questioning and debate are encouraged, and their achievements are valued;
- as a cultural bridge where by working together they learn to value each others’ way of life and see their own lives in a global perspective.
Why this is so important
Britain and Japan face a common challenge.
- In both countries, far too many young people are uninspired by their encounter with science in school and both countries share serious concerns that too few talented young people are attracted to science-related careers, particularly in the physical sciences and engineering.
- Whether as scientists or as citizens, the science education they receive is not yet preparing them to be the science-literate questioning young people the 21st century demands.
The UK-Japan Young Scientists project and workshops are organised by the Clifton Scientific Trust.
A short report is available of the 2010 Workshop
, and video (QuickTime) which was hosted for the first time in Cambridge with projects led by scientists from the University of Cambridge, the Babraham Institute and Hitachi Cambridge Laboratories. 55 students and 19 teachers from 12 schools in England and Japan were based at Murray Edwards College and the adjoining Kaetsu Centre, and worked in 9 small UK-Japanese teams on a wide range of projects in laboratories across Cambridge. At the end of the week they gave team presentations of their achievements before an invited audience which included Lord Rees of Ludlow, President of the Royal Society, Dr Richard Pike, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and Mr Hans-Jeorg Hinkel of Mitsubishi Electric Europe, as well as Prof Kozo Hiramatsu and Mr Takeschi Sekiguchi, Director and Deputy Director JSPS London, and Mr Tomohiko Arai, First Secretary (Science and Technology) Embassy of Japan.
The Workshop was supported by grants and charitable donations from the Department for Education, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Mitsubishi Electric Europe, Toshiba Research Europe and in Japan by the Japan Science and Technology Agency; also in kind by the Hitachi Cambridge Laboratory who ran one of the projects.