Guest talks about the ILC for Oshu city elementary school students this year started with Otashiro Elementary School in Esashi ward on May 12th. The student got to know this big international project with its nearby local candidate site, imagining their area’s future and their own futures after the ILC becomes a reality.

Oshu City started giving ILC talks for elementary schools in the 2015 (H27) fiscal year.
City employees come to elementary schools requesting the talks and explain to children (who will play an important role in local society after the ILC is built) about the purpose and research goals of the ILC, as well as what Oshu might be like after the ILC is built. 1097 elementary school students have listened to these ILC talks so far. This fiscal year, 584 5th and 6th graders from 12 schools including Otashiro are planned to hear the talks.

For the 12th, Oshu ILC Promotion Division staff members Kotaro Watanabe and Mai Goto visited the school. Six 5th and 6th graders listened to the talk, learning an outline of the ILC project through an Iwate prefecture video for children, quizzes and more.

The children, hearing they’ll be around [famous baseball player] Shohei Otani’s age when research for the ILC begins, felt closer to a future with the ILC. 6th grader Ryusei Kumagai (11) said, “I’m good at computers, so I want to get a job doing programming with the ILC when it gets built.” “I like building things, so I think I’ll be designing buildings,” said Miyu Abe (12) with bright eyes, “It impressed me that when the ILC gets built, so many people will come.”

Otashiro Elementary School Principal Takahashi said, “I hope our students felt the good parts about their area, and were able to imagine how they’ll be involved with the ILC in the future.”