最新情報

 

The main theme of the week has been working on projects for today’s (Friday) presentations. On Wednesday, though, we started the day off with Kinoshita-sensei running a reflection session, making sure the students were all thinking carefully about the goal of their time here in Cambridge and making sure they get the most out of their final few days.

 

On Thursday afternoon, we also took a break from preparing for the presentations by having a PHD student, Wendi Bacon, come and give a lecture on DNA sequencing. In her daily work, Wendi sequences DNA with the hope of finding cures for complex diseases like cancer. It’s a complicated process and part way through the teachers watching with the students were getting quite lost, but we were happy to see that many of the students were keeping up and asking good questions about the content. 

 

But the main event this week was the presentation. In the morning, the students set up the tables for each group, and we invited students from the various higher level classes to come walk around. First, the students introduced their products, and they were asked questions about the product’s market, cost, expected development goals, etc. It was a great preparation for the Dragon’s Den event.

 

Once the tables were all put away, the three ‘Dragon’s’ arrived. Their job was to pretend that they were rich investors who were going to choose to invest in one of the day’s ideas. The Dragons were Frank Pinner, the principal of Bell, Maria-Pia, the head of marketing at Bell, and Hannah Clissett, part of Bell’s program enrichment team. 

 

Each team had three minutes to present their product and then there were quick-fire questions from the Dragons. The students did very well under pressure and gave some great presentations with some very interesting and varied ideas.But in the end, it was ‘Pole Star’, who had invented a product for cooling drinks and keeping them cool, that walked away with the Dragon’s approval.

 

After the presentations, we headed into town to enjoy a little more sunshine. This time, we all got on a punt with other students from Bell school and got given a guided tour of the river and some of the colleges in Cambridge.

 

It has been a great two weeks, and all that remains is to get a final night of sleep before heading to the airport, then back to Japan. I think we will all miss Cambridge!

 

２週間のケンブリッジ研修も終わりが近づいています。今晩は、明日の早朝に出発できるように荷造りをすることになっています。今週は主に今日行った最後のプレゼンに向けて活動してきました。水曜には、これまでの活動を振り返り、改めてこの研修の目標を確認するとともに、最後までやり切ることを確認しました。木曜の午後には、いったんプレゼン準備から離れて、博士課程の学生からDNAに関係するレクチャーを受ける時間もありました。やや難しい内容ではありましたが、生徒たちはなんとかついていこうと頑張り、良い質問も出ていました。さて、プレゼンの話題に戻ります。今朝、ゲストの学生たちに来てもらい、自分たちの考案した製品について紹介をするとともに、「誰に売り込むのか」や「製作費用はいくらか」なでの質問を受け、Dragon’s Denの準備を整えました。そして、いよいよ３名のdragonがやってきました。Bell schoolの校長先生をはじめとしたメンバーで、彼らはお金持ちの投資家に扮して、どのアイデアに投資するのかを選びます。それぞれのチームが３分間のプレゼンを行い、その後にDragonたちから質問を受けました。プレッシャーのかかる中で生徒たちは素晴らしいプレゼンをしていましたし、おもしろいアイデアが様々出てきました。最終的には、飲み物を冷やしておく製品を考えたチームがDragonの承認を得ました。プレゼンが終わった後にはみんなで町に出て、Bell schoolの他の生徒たちと一緒にパンティングを楽しみました。素晴らしい２週間が終わりを迎え、今晩寝るとあとは日本に帰るだけです。きっとすぐにケンブリッジのことが懐かしくなることでしょう！それだけ充実した時間を過ごすことができました。