On August 20, the Okayama University Volunteer Center (OVC) invited junior and senior high school students affected by recent Japan floods to Okayama University Campus Relay Tour 2018, which was held to introduce appealing features of the university in collaboration with the university’s Faculty of Education and the Nippon Foundation Student Volunteer Center (Gakuvo).

When tour participants visited a laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture, Fumio Fukuda, Associate Professor in Pomology explained the growth process of fruits such as peaches and grapes and problems in cultivation, which are his research themes, while inviting participants to join in a fun quiz game. After the lecture, tour participants tasted peaches and grapes that had been stored at 0°C in a high-performance refrigerated container for 10 days after harvesting. By eating juicy and sweet fruits as fresh as if just picked, participants appreciated the advantages for producers created by realizing such a long-time storage of fruits.

In addition, an exchange meeting was held at Okayama University Library by students of the university’s Faculty of Education and OVC’s student staff members. At the meeting, Taku Ojima, Associate Professor of Faculty of Education, welcomed the participants, saying “I hope you experience some aspects of campus life and have fun throughout the event.” Participating junior and senior high school students actively asked questions of current OU students about research at the university and about extracurricular activities.

Those attending also participated in the event “SDGs Science Cafe—Thinking about the Future of Oceans from a Scientific Viewpoint” to deepen their understanding of sustainable ocean environments through various issues such as ocean acidification, marine debris, and mechanisms behind red tide generation.