At Joso Gakuin Jr. High School in Ibaraki, Japan
RISO visited several junior high schools in Japan in the autumn of 2020 and ran screen printing workshops using RISO MiScreen a4. What did the students learn through creative activities and how did they enjoy the workshops? The following is the report on how the workshop in a junior high school in Ibaraki, Japan went.
Achieving “Living Learning” stimulates creativity
“Wow, screen printing is great!” ” I didn’t know anything about screen printing, but now I know what it is and how it is done.” “Screen printing is really cool.” We heard those exuberant voices here and there in the class room. This was a scene of the learning-by-experience class that Josogakuin Junior High School in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki prefecture set up under the theme of “making a one of a kind tote bag.” Tying up with companies, this junior high school has included experimental learning in its curriculum as part of its career and vocational education. The staff members of RISO’s Print Creating Business Division visited the school with a compact digital screen maker, MiScreen a4 and ran a special screen-printing workshop for 32 students in the third year of the school.
To give students first-hand experience with screen-printing, RISO staff divided 32 students into six groups. Each student prepared his/her own original design for a tote bag. Every student scanned his/her design and transferred it to MiScreen a4 from the PC. Then, everyone tried holding down the switch of the machine with both hands. An exposed screen master came out in 35 seconds. Everyone got joyously excited to see an image (consisting of tiny perforations) exactly the same as the original design. Then, every student nervously and carefully put ink on the exposed screen master, squeegeed it and created his or her own unique tote bag.
Mr. Atsushi Enomoto, the teacher for art said, “Looking at reactions of the students, I am very confident that our plan for having a screen printing workshop is a big success. The students are allowed to use only one color. The limitation made the students more creative in making a design.”
Ms. Saki Horikoshi, the teacher in charge of this third-year class said, “Some students ended up making a tote bag with a blurred design. That tote bag is also unique. All students are satisfied that they have made the only tote bag of its kind in the world.
Ms. Ai Yugen, the teacher, who planned this special class said,” I wanted to give our students an opportunity to listen to some outside people’s talks rather than the teaches they see every day. The special class served the objective and it also functioned as an experimental class for creation. Our students have really enjoyed a very valuable and living learning experience through screen printing.
RISO also organized a screen printing workshop for 45 art club members of Minamirokugo Junior High School in Ohta ward. They learned the whole process of screen printing from stretching a screen master onto the frame, exposing the screen master, and squeegeeing the exposed screen master to drying ink through the firsthand experience of screen printing T-shirts and tote bags. They took on a new challenge of screen printing with lively expressions on their faces.
RISO trusts that creating things by the user-friendly MiScreen a4 stimulated the creative abilities of junior high students and it also gave practical experience to them.
A MiScreen a4 workshop was implemented at a junior high school Art Club.
45 students experienced screen printing and created original Tote??s and T??s.
Students had experienced the whole screen printing process. Some of them challenged multi-color printing with a big smile by the end of the day.
