Japanese Students Interview Robert
Our coolest "collab" this year began with an email from Mr Tully, an elementary school teacher in Fukuoka, Japan. His school focuses on the students' understanding of their surroundings, the world, and their places in it. As early as age 9-10 students are introduced to topics such as equality and freedom, economy, climate impact, and conservation. They learn about personal growth and how to develop their interests.
These topics are all connected and discussed through different units. They often use maps to better understand and visualize the issues they are focusing on. Mr Tully is a huge fan of using maps in the classroom, and showed Robert's work to the children in reference to their studies of mountaineering, cartography, biodiversity, and conservation.
At the time of the inquiry, the next unit was called "Passion Projects", and Mr Tully wondered if the children could connect with Robert, after introducing him and his career to them. Since the children had learned so much about the environment and had used maps whenever possible, Robert's volunteering trips and his work as a GIS analyst seemed like the perfect inspiration for a conversation about interests and how people follow their passions.
Despite the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, the children managed to find time to record their questions just before summer vacation. The next day, Robert answered in his own video message, so on the last school day the kids had the chance to "meet" him.
The fourth graders, were obviously having fun but also took it very seriously, asking original and thought-provoking questions - some better than those from most journalists! For privacy reasons, we cannot show you the video, but we got permission to use the audio, which you can listen to in the video below. A transcript is provided in the video description. However, we highly recommend listening to the audio to hear how passionate and excited the kids are :)
You can also find Robert's answers here, if you're curious about questions like "What did your parents say when you followed your dreams?" and "Can you describe your life and work in one word?".
Connecting with the class was a great experience for us, surely something we will remember fondly. Thank you Mr Tully, thank you Grade 4!
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