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1. What prompted you decide to participate in the "JSPS Science Dialogue" program?
In Argentina during my graduate study, I was also a High School teacher, lecturing (in English for the IGCSE Cambridge) the subject "Natural Economy", what it is today known as Sustainable Development. However after only one year lecturing I had to quit forced by the responsibility to study and finish my career. I have had a wonderful experience, and I felt since then a motivation to contact and teach younger students. Having this opportunity in Japan was absolutely what my heart was looking for.
2. To what did you give greatest attention in preparing and giving the lecture?
Making things clear, concise, and with some Japanese context. I always think that even very difficult topics must be possible to explain in simpler words or with a simple experiment. I carried one simple experiment, and the students caught the idea immediately, even though complicated physics were involved in the phenomenon. Also, I used pictures for all the topics explained, because it is easier to associate in the brain a concept with a nice picture, rather than words.
3. Did you find it difficult to give a lecture in English to Japanese students? Could you give some advice to future lecturers on how to facilitate communication with Japanese students?
Not really. Luckily the students had indeed a good level in English. Because of the questions they asked, it was clear they understood the lecture. However my native language is not English, and I tried to speak as clear as possible. Sometimes Native Speakers forget about this and just speak as everyday forgetting how difficult their accent might be (what actually happens to me when I speak Spanish!!!). Students were really attracted to the nice pictures and to the experiment, and if I have had enough time, I would have made more experiments.
4. Could you give your impression with regard to participating in this program?
I am very happy and satisfied with this program. I was able to contact high-school students, and could see by myself how they are like, how they think and what do they have in mind, at least very briefly. I hope the students were motivated after my talk, and their curiosity increased. I hope they were able to interact with one researcher, because after all they are going to be researchers in some years. And I hope also they were able to loose a little bit of the normal fear of speaking to a foreigner!
5. Was it meaningful in terms of your fellowship activities?
This talk was related to my research activities, and of course it is a good exercise to explain what I do. However this has more a personal meaning, since it enriched my experience in an area which is not contemplated in the fellowship. I am really thankful for that.
6. In what ways do you think the students benefited from the program?
As I said before in question # 4, I really hope the students were motivated after my talk, and their curiosity increased. I guess also that as they were able to interact with one researcher, they were able to imagine themselves as future researchers. And I saw them a little scared at the beginning of the questions
7. Could you give some overall advice or comments to future participants in the program?
Just try to make the presentation easy to understand, embedding Japanese terms and/or phrases, and keeping it interesting with interesting pictures, funny details, gags, etc. One must not forget that they are teenagers, and never get disappointed if some of them do not pay attention or fall asleep during the talk. Also repeating and stressing on the most difficult points of the talk, and translating them immediately to Japanese are very helpful.
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