On Saturday, July 16, lectures for the GRM courses "Group Work Practice I" and "Group Work Practice IV" were held. 

These lectures were held in preparation for the Kumamoto and Fukuoka fieldwork on September. 16 students of these courses took the class either at Shikokan in Karasuma Campus or Hochikan in Kyotanabe Campus and were connected via Zoom.

One of the main features of the GRM program is that Japanese and international students can study together in English, transcending the barriers of specialty, arts and sciences, and the campus location.
We had lectures by Professor Hayashida (Graduate School of Science and Engineering) in Kyotanabe campus, Professor Oyamada (Graduate School of Global Studies) in Karasuma campus, and Professor Wada (Graduate School of Science and Engineering) via on-demand video streaming, as well as by Professor Ueda (Nihon University) who joined online.

First, the assignment and general itinerary of the fieldwork were presented and then the students were divided into fieldwork groups.
Then, the lecturers discussed about: the kinds of disasters that occur in Japan and around the world, the mechanisms of tsunamis, reasons why Japan has so many earthquakes, ways to manage disaster risks, the type of earthquake that occurred in Kumamoto in 2016, and the current situation of Kumamoto. A wide range of preliminary lectures were given based on knowledge from both the humanities and sciences.

The backgrounds of the students were very diverse, with some coming from countries with fewer earthquakes and others having experienced a major earthquake in their home countries.
After the lectures were over, some students stayed in the classroom to discuss among themselves.

The following week, on July 23rd, the students will visit the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution (DRI) in Kobe City to learn from the experiences of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and deepen their knowledge on disaster prevention and disaster mitigation and prepare for the fieldwork in Kumamoto and Fukuoka.