Day two began with a breakfast at Subway followed by an hour­long ride to the new Ritsumeikan Junior and Senior High School campus. We met up with our student buddy, Narumi, who showed us around campus and led us to our science presentation venue. We chose to attend the chemistry presentations. One group of Australians investigated which tea was the healthiest while the other group studied the environmental impact of bunker fuel. The students from France did a research project on liquid crystals and LCD displays. The Hong Kong students had an impressive presentation on the recovery of BPA from old CDs.

Afterwards, we had lunch. There were no chairs or tables in the cafeteria; we were told to mingle. There was a wide variety of Japanese food: takoyaki, mini matcha cakes, sushi, deep fried seafood...everything one would expect and more. We were asked to get to know each other by filling out bingo sheets with people’s names if they fulfilled the requirements written in the boxes. We got to know people from all over the world, including some mates from Australia, friends from Hawaii, and even fellow Canadians.

After lunch, we were split into different groups of four and told to build a car using rubber bands, plastic sheets, straws, bamboo sticks, and toy wheels. At the end, we would compete to see which car would run the furthest. The 55 teams were split up into five different groups. Every group would compete, and the top two performers in each group would move on to the final. Our group worked for an hour, frantically trying to copy the design of the model car. In the end, our group came up with a triangular design and won our group competition. Our design broke down in the final, but it was all good fun and we were all just surprised that it actually worked!

The science poster presentation was the highlight of the day. Since we had three people in our group, one person could stay by the poster and the other two could wander around. All of the projects were very impressive, ranging from anti-cancer medicine to UAVs. Some of the concepts were so complicated I couldn’t understand a single word on the poster, but the students did their best to explain them. We worked with other students for our Science Zone project. My group programmed a snake­like robot to navigate a course. Although hardly any of us had any experience with programming and our robot broke twice, 'Bob the bot' finally made it to the end.

We ended the day with a round of cards with participants from five different countries: Iran, Canada, USA, Australia, and the Philippines. Behind the dense theories and complicated scientific terms, the young scientists turned out to be normal teenagers who could let loose and have fun. Even though it’s only the second day, lots of unexpected friendships are already being forged.

– Isabella Z.