Academy Camp 2021 Report

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"Academy Camp-Style! Serious Research" Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 Maker Faire Tokyo 2021 Exhibition Report Academy Camp 2021

(second half)

Academy Camp Style! Serious Research (second half) / Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 / Maker Faire Tokyo 2021Exhibition Report

Introduction Academy Camp started as a camp for children in Fukushima in the wake of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. Even today, the basic spirit of the camp has not changed. Recently, however, we have become increasingly concerned about the situation surrounding children's learning itself, because the technological and social landscape is changing dramatically.

There is a saying: "No one has ever changed the world by doing what the world has told them to do". These were the words of a young entrepreneur in his teens. Today, many of these young people are emerging in a variety of fields. New technologies such as AI and robotics are finally being integrated into society, and the common sense of the world itself is about to be transformed. This is the beginning of the "next generation". The children who live today and carry the future are part of this "next generation".

What we can do now is to support the "next generation" as they move forward into the unknown, so that they do not get caught up in new tragedies, but rather lead the changes that are gaining momentum, so that they can spread their wings into the future. It is with this in mind that we continue to run camps that are full of fun and learning.

Who are Academy Camp?

We are a group of university faculty members, camp leaders, members of a non-profit organization that supports children, and many student and adult volunteers who support our activities. Since the summer of 2011, we have been organizing camps for children mainly in Fukushima prefecture, aiming to experience the summit of "play" and "learning". https://academy-camp.org Our Activities in Fiscal Year 2021 In November and December 2020 (the fiscal year end of Academy Camp is October 31, so this report covers the activities from November 2020 to October 2021), we continued to hold the "Serious Research" online camp, and in 2021, we held a series of online VR (Virtual Reality) camps in May, July, August, and September. In October, we exhibited at Maker Faire Tokyo 2021, which was held online. Specifically, in May, we held our first VR camp, "The Birth of Planet Academy Camp," followed by test flights with our partner STAR HOUSE (VR space travel company) in the same month, "You Create! Lunar Society" in July, "PREFAB THE WORLDS" and "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS" exploring Jupiter's moon Europa in August, and then "You Explore! Amazing Modern & Near-Future Medicine" in September. In October, as part of our exhibit at Maker Faire Tokyo, we held a live webcast summarizing what we did in Academy Camp VR. This report summarizes those camp activities.

We hope you will enjoy the record of the wonderful days in which children played a leading role, supported by your support and the young power of students and pupils.

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Academy Camp Child Safeguarding Charter 私たちアカデミーキャンプの仲間たちは、メンバー ( 参加するこどもたち ) に対して次のことを守ります。 1. メンバーの命と健康を最優先に考え、メンバーを保護します。 2. メンバーが達成したいゴールの理解に努め、そのゴールをメンバー自身が達成できるようにサポートします。 3. 民族・性別・年齢・宗教・性的指向・その他心身のコンディション等、いかなる条件にもよらず、すべての メンバーに等しく機会を提供します。 4. そのために必要な個別のケアをします。 私たちアカデミーキャンプの仲間たちは、上のことが守られるよう、内外の脅威に対して備え、常に私たち自身 をトレーニングし、私たちが提供する体験の向上に努めます。また、キャンプの外で出会うすべてのこどもたち に対しても同様に接します。

We, the friends of Academy Camp, promise the following for our members (children participating in our programs): 1. Protect the members by giving their lives and health first priority.

2. Work to understand the goals they want to achieve, and help them achieve those goals themselves.

3. Provide equal opportunities to all members regardless of race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation or other physical or mental conditions.

4. We will do the individual care for each member necessary for the above.

We, the friends of Academy Camp, constantly train ourselves to improve the experiences we provide to satisfy the above, and to prepare against internal and external threats. We also treat all the children we meet outside the camp accordingly.

Since the start of our work in 2011, we have generally tried to treat children in the same way as the Charter above, although we have not always declared so explicitly. In order to clarify our stance both internally and externally, we have established this Child Safeguarding Charter, which was published on 27 November 2019. All Academy Camp staff are now committed to following this Charter when they attend our camps.

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Academy Camp Style! Serious Research (second half) / Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 / Maker Faire Tokyo 2021Exhibition Report

Academy Camp 2020 (not only) Summer "Academy Camp Style! Serious Research" Life is long. But summer vacation is short.

Due to the impact of measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the summer vacation of 2020 was even shorter than usual across the country.

"I was looking forward to doing free research during the summer, but I can't do it!"

"I had something I wanted to try during the summer vacation, but it's too short..."

In the summer (and fall and winter) of year 2020, Academy Camp did its best to support their "I want to try!"

It was called "Academy Camp Style! Serious Research". Chromebooks were also distributed to children who did not have their own computers at home.

Academy Camp 2020 (not only) Summer - Persons responsible for implementation (camp name in brackets) * Kenji Saito (Psyche) - Representative Director, Academy Camp - Professor, Graduate School of Business and Finance, Waseda University / Senior Researcher, Keio Research Institute at SFC * Maseki Minami (Mabo-san) - Director, Academy Camp - Project Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University (position at that time)

Basic Information Sun. 26 Jul 2020 - Sun. 20 Dec 2020 : 17 meetings in total Dates

* This report covers Nov.22 (14th), Dec.6 (15th), Dec.13 (16th), and Dec.20 (17th and the final) meetings.

Venue Participants

Target : 4th grade to high school students mainly from Fukushima Pref.

Participation : 17 (4th grade to high school students)

Chromebook

Distributed Chromebooks : Lenovo Chromebook S330 (64GB)

Distribution

Count : 42 units

Staff Organizers Grants

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Zoom meeting

10 volunteer staff (university students and working people) 2 persons in charge of implementation (Academy Camp) Academy Camp Public Technology Design Consortium, Keio Research Inst. at SFC Pal System Kanagawa Dream Coop Citizen Activity Support Program Dawnbringer Karma Grant by Riot Games

not only Summer

"Academy Camp Style! Conference", a place for everyone to interact through research, was held.

Day 14-17

I certify that this person has attended the conference and presented the results of their work on SERIOUS RESEARCH.

At the end of December, we gave our final presentation online as the conclusion of the "Academy Camp-style! Serious Research," which continued through the summer, fall, and winter of this year. The presentation was also streamed live on YouTube. This presentation meeting was designed to be an "Academy Camp-Style!" conference where young researchers (children) and adults, including university students who participated in this series of events as staff members, could interact through research. To achieve this, at the beginning of the conference, we used the "Storytellers" format of improvisational comedy to improvise and weave a funny story, interspersed with lines about each study.

After a good laugh, it was time for research presentations, on city planning, flow experience, viscosity of natto, removing toxicity from potatoes, learning English, geology, gender determination of the giant hornet, playing music with gravity, cashless changing eating habits, making games, dimetrodon eating habits, controlling avatars with brain waves, digital ID cards in future stores with selective disclosure. These were presentations by children, university students, and adult staff members. This is the end of "Serious Research" that we have been doing for a long time. But we still continue, because our research is not over! We hope that this experience will lead to emergence of new collaborations, because research is, in the first place, a community activity.

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Academy Camp Style! Serious Research (second half) / Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 / Maker Faire Tokyo 2021Exhibition Report

Academy Camp VR 2021.5 "The Birth of Planet Academy Camp" Now, an environment in which you can easily enjoy metaverse (a compound word of meta and universe), which can create both reality and worlds beyond reality in virtual space, is within your reach. You can share the same time, create the same world, talk, experiment, and share the same excitement with your friends.

Academy Camp VR 2021.5, the first attempt of its kind for Academy Camp, brought together the science of metaverse and reality through the creation of our own new planet.

Now is the time for children to build new worlds with (controllers in) their own hands. Perhaps the first thing to do in order to build a world is to declare that here is a new world. So we say, "This is the Planet Aacademy Camp." From there, we can all decide together.

Academy Camp VR 2021.5 - Persons responsible for implementation (camp name in brackets) * Kenji Saito (Psyche) - Representative Director, Academy Camp - Professor, Graduate School of Business and Finance, Waseda University / Senior Researcher, Keio Research Institute at SFC * Maseki Minami (Mabo-san) - Director, Academy Camp - Program Director, Digital Architecture Design Center, Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) (position at that time)

Basic Information Dates

Venue

VR Practice Period : May 1 (Sat.), 2 (Sun.), 3 (Mon.), 2021 VR Camp Period : May 4 (Tue.), 5 (Wed.), 2021 Zoom, VRChat, MultiBrush, Minecraft BE Target : 1st grade to junior high and high school students

Participants

Participation : 19 students (1st to 11th grade) - Minecraft program : 12 students (1st to 8th grade) - Oculus program : 10 students (7th to 11th grade)

Staff Organizers Grants

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6 volunteer staff (students and working people) 2 persons in charge of implementation (Academy Camp) Academy Camp Public Technology Design Consortium, Keio Research Inst. at SFC Pal System Kanagawa Dream Coop Citizen Activity Support Program

"All these worlds are yours. Use them together. Use them in peace." (from 2010:

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Odyssey Two, A.C.Clarke) And all participants received operator rights to Academy Camp's Minecraft Realms.

Since the use of VR headsets is not recommended for elementary school students whose eyes are still in the developmental stage, we prepared a program for them to create their favorite places in Minecraft at this camp. For junior and high school students, we lent VR headsets to those who wanted to use them for an extended period of time, and offered their first VR experiences and 3D painting with the theme of shaping the world with (controllers in) their own hands (in subsequent camps, since the time to use VR headsets must be limited anyway, we have also invited younger generations to participate).

In the Minecraft program, we prepared two realms for the children. At the end of the program, we held an expo and were amazed at the number of buildings the children created in such a short period of time.

The VR program invited Dr. Shinsuke Abe, a space science researcher. After a lecture on the Earth's moon, we moved to the VR "university classroom" for a Q&A session, visited various space-related worlds, and listened to the professor's explanations. Finally, they took a photo on the surface of Mars. Also, following a reading of the last part of Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" by VR artist KAHUA, everyone let their imaginations run wild and freely 3D-painted in the VR space. Next, with improvisation artist 6-dim+, we tried our hand at "One Word," in which we took turns speaking one word at a time and acting out the role of a single narrator in Zoom. Then, in VR, participants were divided into groups to try their hand at live improvisational theater, and a strange and exciting world unfolded.

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Academy Camp Style! Serious Research (second half) / Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 / Maker Faire Tokyo 2021Exhibition Report We believe that the key is the sense that children themselves can create their own (various) worlds.

VR21.5

At the end of the last day, the camp director received a message from somewhere. "This planet is finished.... The adults have ruined this planet. Let's all flee to another planet!" Then we all jumped into the portal and arrived at an empty world. "This is the planet Academy Camp.

From here, we can all create the future together." That was the closing ceremony of the camp.

After everyone had said a few words, another portal appeared. When everyone jumped in, they found their 3D paintings recreated as a VR world.

With the determination to become MAKER instead of VISITOR, the children jumped one by one into the portals leading to various different worlds, and set off into the unknown.

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Two "test flights" were conducted to pioneer various new camps that will be

VR21.5

realized by applying VR from now on.

Test Flights

Photography: pichikyo, tommy

That same month, we participated in a test flight of STAR HOUSE (VR Space Travel Company). We were joined for the third time by space scientist Dr. Abe, who told us more about our moon, watched the launch of the next generation of commercial rockets, climbed on such rockets (lol), floated around the International Space Station, and went to the surface of the moon where we will be able to build our secret base, all in VR. We had the luxury of receiving Dr. Abe's wealth of space knowledge while experiencing it through our own bodies (as avatars).

The VR world that the children painted in 3D for The Birth of Planet Academy Camp was almost complete, and KAHUA-san, who provided guidance, was invited to the preview. Everyone can now move freely through space, jumping under small gravity and using personal propulsion devices.

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Academy Camp Style! Serious Research (second half) / Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 / Maker Faire Tokyo 2021Exhibition Report

Academy Camp 2021 Summer VR "You Create! Lunar Society" "PREFAB THE WORLDS" "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS" The near future is now. Academy camp members headed to the moon to create a lunar society, and a large black rectangular object excavated from the lunar subsurface appeared before their eyes. It showed that extraterrestrial intelligence had reached the surface of the Moon before mankind. Named the monolith, it was a strange object that gave people who touched it strange experiences.

As the strange experience implied, it was confirmed that there was a huge monolith in Jupiter's orbit as well. And from the Jupiter's monolith, a communication was sent by radio waves to the Earth and Moon with the following content: "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS - EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE." To explore the mystery of this mysterious message, Academy camp went to Jupiter and its moon Europa, and of course landed there.

Academy Camp 2021 Summer VR - Persons responsible for implementation (camp name in brackets) * Kenji Saito (Psyche) - Representative Director, Academy Camp - Professor, Graduate School of Business and Finance, Waseda University / Senior Researcher, Keio Research Institute at SFC * Maseki Minami (Mabo-san) - Director, Academy Camp - Program Director, Digital Architecture Design Center, Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) (position at that time)

Basic Information Term 1 : Jul.22 (Thu.), 23 (Fri.), 24 (Sat.), 2021 Dates

Term 2 : Aug.7 (Sat.), 8 (Sun.), 9 (Mon.), 2021 Term 3 : Aug.13 (Fri.), 14 (Sat.), 15 (Sun.), 2021

Venue

Zoom, miro, VRChat, Minecraft BE Targets : 1st grade to junior high and high school students

Participants

(plus adults (Term 1 only)) Participation : 16 (Term 1), 15 (Term 2), 17 (Term 3) (1st to 11th grade)

Staff Organizers Grants

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10 volunteer staff (students and working people) 2 persons in charge of implementation (Academy Camp) Academy Camp Public Technology Design Consortium, Keio Research Inst. at SFC Pal System Kanagawa Dream Coop Citizen Activity Support Program Palsystem Support Fund for Victims of Nuclear Power Plant Accident

A World Café-style dialogue was held on the theme of "What kind of society

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do you want to create on the Moon?"

The VR world Academy Camp VR Moon was the stage for this adventure, where we imagined the moon in the 2030s, with the Apollo Project Memorial Park on the surface, and a vast space behind the vertical hole discovered by the Japanese probe Kaguya that was the site of a lava flow, where we all constructed our lunar base together.

We also identified the problems that humanity faces on Earth and wondered if those problems could be solved in a lunar society.

Considering that we are building a society from scratch, it seemed to us that the various problems we currently face on Earth would be easier to solve on the Moon. We would be happy if our experiences at this camp would be a "souvenir" to bring that feeling back to our lives on Earth.

So, have we all explored the moon? Alright, next stop, Jupiter!

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Academy Camp Style! Serious Research (second half) / Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 / Maker Faire Tokyo 2021Exhibition Report

Ten years after the last camp. The moon base is now a playground for everyone.

VR21.8a

At this camp, we all built spaceship to go to Europa, a moon of Jupiter, to land and search for extraterrestrial life.

There were so many different opinions about what kind of spaceship to build, which everyone would be boarding, that we couldn't come to a consensus and almost decided on a majority vote. But what do you think? This is a fiction in virtual reality, but if it were real, it would be a spaceship for everyone to board and explore with our lives on the line. Knowing that our lives are on the line and the consequences of our choices will ultimately follow the laws of physics, can we decide on a design just because more people think this way is better? With this question in mind, everyone built their own prototype spaceships in the workspace provided in Minecraft.

We also learned about Europa and designed the creatures that live in its oceans together.

Design work continued on the spacecraft and the landers that would separate from it. The end result was two large spacecraft, but in the process many unused designs were created. All of them are just great!

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Teamwork to complete and survive the dangerous adventure mission.

VR21.8b

Training for the mission continued. With our improvisation mentor, Hiroshi from 6-dim+, we spun improvised stories, walked (and jumped) through the venue (lunar base) together as buddies (two teammates working together), and even introduced each other to our favorite places in the Moon base. The last part of the training was to carry out a propulsion test of two spacecraft's normal engines at the dock. It was only 10 meters forward and backward, but the spaceships we created actually worked!

Finally, it was time to leave for the Jupiter system. Two spacecraft equipped with warp technology to reach Jupiter were deployed at the space dock orbiting the Moon. On this memorable occasion, we invited Dr. Shinsuke Abe of Nihon University, also known as Avell, to join us on our journey to Jupiter.

And in the ocean beneath Europa's icy shell (a few kilometers down the surface in reality), everyone witnessed giant creatures of their own design standing or swimming. Today, humans arrived on Jupiter for the first time.

Upon returning to Zoom, everyone shared their thoughts and impressions, bringing this summer VR adventure to a close.

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Academy Camp Style! Serious Research (second half) / Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 / Maker Faire Tokyo 2021Exhibition Report

Academy Camp VR 2021.9 "You Explore! Amazing Modern & Near Future Medicine" Although the members of Academy Camp have been working (virtually) in space, when we consider the realities of actually living in space, we are confronted with a variety of problems. What if we get sick in space? What if we get injured? How do you perform surgery in space? We held a camp where everyone answered these questions together.

And while future space medicine looks amazing, don't you think that today's medicine on Earth is also quite impressive? The world is still in the midst of the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection, but a new technology called mRNA vaccine has been introduced and many people around us have been vaccinated. But how is it that we are unaware of the mechanism of the microcode, so to speak, that is being injected into our bodies? That's where Academy Camp wants to be a MAKER, not a VISITOR of society, so we want to make sure we know! Therefore, at this camp, we also read the RNA code of mRNA vaccines.

Academy Camp VR 2021.9 - Persons responsible for implementation (camp name in brackets) * Kenji Saito (Psyche) - Representative Director, Academy Camp - Professor, Graduate School of Business and Finance, Waseda University / Senior Researcher, Keio Research Institute at SFC * Maseki Minami (Mabo-san) - Director, Academy Camp - Program Director, Digital Architecture Design Center, Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) (position at that time)

Basic Information Dates

Sep.18 (Sat.), 19 (Sun.), 20 (Mon.), 2021

Venue

Zoom, VRChat, MultiBrush

Participants

Staff

Organizers

Grants

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Target : 1st grade to junior high and high school students Participation : 13 students (1st to 9th grade) 3 volunteer staff (working people) 2 persons in charge of implementation (Academy Camp) Academy Camp Public Technology Design Consortium, Keio Research Inst. at SFC Pal System Kanagawa Dream Coop Citizen Activity Support Program Palsystem Support Fund for Victims of Nuclear Power Plant Accident

At this time, the VR Cells World was still under construction. More on that later in next

VR21.9

year's report.

codon optimization

We actually read the code for Pfizer's mRNA vaccine almost word for word at this camp and learned more about immunization. Then, in preparation for the creation of the VR Cells world with viruses falling from the sky, we 3D-painted the cells that would be the major characters(?) and what's inside them. We were divided into two groups: 1) who painted the network of immune cells (roughly in microns, tens to hundreds of meters in the VR Cells World), and 2) who painted the factories inside cells (roughly in nanometers, a few centimeters in the VR Cells World). We 3D-painted various cells, DNA, RNA, enzymes, etc.

On the last day, we invited Dr. Takizawa, a doctor who researches space medicine, to discuss medical treatment in space, which would always be a problem when people live in space. We also discussed various questions about our bodies (regenerative medicine, etc.), not limited to space medicine. Dr. Takizawa said smilingly, "I rarely have a chance to talk with elementary and junior high school students," and we had a great time together.

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Academy Camp Style! Serious Research (second half) / Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 / Maker Faire Tokyo 2021Exhibition Report

Academy Camp VR in Maker Faire Tokyo 2021 At this year's celebration of makers, Academy Camp VR gave a 5-minute video mini-presentation, introduced its activities on social media, and explored the worlds created by Academy Camp VR and its members via YouTube Live.

The worlds explored during the YouTube Live included the 3D-painted "Planet Academy Camp," the "Academy Camp VR Moon," an early lunar base envisioned for the 2030s, "Academy Camp VR Venue," created as the main venue for all our VR camps and imagined as a lunar base in the 2040s, "Academy Camp VR Europa," for going to Jupiter's moon Europa to search for life and coming back. We also visited "Academy Camp VR Cells," a cellular world that represents the body's immune system on a giant scale, which was still under heavy construction at that time.

Basic Information Dates

Oct. 2 (Sat.), 3 (Sun.), 2021

Venue

Zoom, VRChat, Twitter

Participants

Participation : 6 children (elementary and junior high school students)

Staff

Total of 4 volunteer staff and responsible persons (working people)

Grants

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Pal System Kanagawa Dream Coop Citizen Activity Support Program Palsystem Support Fund for Victims of Nuclear Power Plant Accident

MAKERS

We believe that only by creating things ourselves do we truly understand the things.

2021

The power to recreate the worlds, to children.

After touring the worlds we had created, we promised to meet again and brought the curtain down on our Maker Faire Tokyo this year.

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Academy Camp Style! Serious Research (second half) / Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 / Maker Faire Tokyo 2021Exhibition Report

2021 STAFF

With gratitude to our irreplaceable friends.

Students and Adults

* This alternative logo of Academy Camp (right) is a black andwhite design created by a high school sub-leader (at the time) and colored by AI using deep learning.

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Afterword Looking back Academy Camp 2021

Kenji Saito Representative Director, Academy Camp As in the previous year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to move all of our activities online in 2021, but thanks to your generous support and the efforts of our fellow students and adult volunteers who worked together to create the camp, we were able to continue to take on new challenges in this year.

We were particularly surprised by Academy Camp VR, which we implemented for the first time this year. This is because it turned out to have the best qualities of both the physical camps, so to speak, that we have been running since 2011, and the online camps that we went

on last year with our worries. The most fun part of camps is not so much the activities within their programs but the playtime with new friends afterwards. In VR camps, when the program is over, the children actually go off to play with their new friends in different worlds. Also, we have been trying to cherish constructionism instead of instructionism (Papert, 1991), but in VR camps, children can behave exploratively and inquisitively, and we adults can avoid being instructionistic in order to protect their lives and health. I would say that this past year we have been able to explore what Academy Camp should be at an unprecedented level.

The question that may confront us in the future, when the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to come to an end, is the question of how we can achieve in physical camps the level of things we have done in Academy Camp VR. Again, thank you very much indeed for your support for Academy Camp in 2021. We look forward to your continued support for the children of Fukushima and the rest of Japan, who will continue to take on the challenges of the future, and Academy Camp.

Kenji Saito (Psyche)

From parents' feedback Academy Camp has a tremendous amount of freedom, depth of acceptance, and depth beyond once children are willing to explore... I have the impression that Academy Camp nurtures the future of the children involved...

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The era of perfect copying is coming to an end. The world is moving away from the days of "do you copy?" and "I copy" toward "individual construction" in which each person creates a new world.

On Donations Academy Camp is funded by participation fees from participants and staff, contributions from lecturers, grants, and your donations. We really appreciate your support.

To donate: GlobalGiving (US and UK) - https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/academy-camp/

"Academy Camp Style! Serious Research" (second half) Academy Camp VR 2021.5-9 Maker Faire Tokyo 2021 Exhibition Report https://academy-camp.org

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