July 28, 2011

"Summer Science Camp 2011" co-organized by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), was held from July 26 - 28, 2011. The camp was arranged as a three-days-stay program where 18 selected high-school students can investigate the properties of metallic materials by various experiments at NIMS and MANA.

The participants performed two experiments at MANA: 1) Lithography with photosensitive material inside the clean room at the MANA Foundry and 2) Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) measurement of a semiconductor chip to observe the difference between the crystallographic and amorphous phases on an atomic-scale.

All participants have experienced working inside a clean room with clean-room clothes for the first time and they looked very excited. They received the chance to see the difference between a positive and negative process of lithography. Working with a TEM, the participants were very interested in the atomic images of a silicon crystal at nano-scale that were displayed in a monitor.

At the end of the camp, results from the two experiments were presented by two groups.

What's the Science Camp?

The Science Camp is a "hands-on learning" science and technology program organized by JST. Students from high schools and Technical Colleges can receive lectures and guidance directly from leading researchers of a laboratory with state of the art facilities and equipment. The camp held during summer vacation is called "Summer Science Camp".

Related Links

• Summer Science Camp 2011 (NIMS, in Japanese)
• Science Camp (JST, in Japanese)