On July 27th, Hitachi High-Tech held a workshop utilizing a tabletop microscope entitled “The Micro World”. This is the first time that HHT has taken equipment into a library for a face-to-face event.

Kamifukuoka Library is a large facility with a staff of 60. The library stresses the importance of actually picking things up and experiencing them at first-hand, and links up with schools to promote investigative learning. It engages in distinctive initiatives, such as actively hiring human resources with a background in the sciences.

This time, the 58 participants, consisting of 42 elementary and junior high school students and 16 of their parents or guardians, were divided into four groups to operate the electron microscope and carry out a mini experiment using yogurt. At the end of each session, the participants stayed near the microscope and asked a barrage of questions.

Feedback from participants included the following comments: “I was surprised by how big the object my friends and I were looking for appeared,” “I want to look at more things through the electron microscope,” “Actually seeing something I’d only read about made it very real,” and “I was glad we could talk about lots of things during the free time.”

Hitachi High-Tech will continue to develop opportunities for new initiatives, and will provide our activities to more children.

“Wow! Is that what it looks like!?”

Talking about the deer pelvis and snake skin that library staff had brought to the workshop

All questions were answered on the spot, whatever they were

Start the experiment by shaking the yogurt pots!