23 – 26 March 2024, International Relations Office and students from the Faculty of Science, PSU, have joined the 2nd COIL: SDGs Global Camp 2024, hosted by Toho University, Japan. This COIL initiative was established with the collaboration of 3 partners: Prince of Songkla University, Toho University (Japan), Chung San Medical University (Taiwan) aiming to develop a better understanding and raise awareness of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through an internationalized student mobility project.

This year, the SDGs Camp was held in Chiba, Japan, with around 30 students from Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. The selected group is required to join 5 online classes to learn more about SDGs and to propose their projects with their designated area for data collection such as beach, park, school, department store, and train station.

Besides conducting SDGs project, one of the most impressive moments is visiting Shitada-no-Mori Satoyama, the ecologically rich green space surrounded by urbanized residential development in Kashiwa. Shitada-no-Mori has been restoring and preserving the neighborhood’s ecosystem, native flora and fauna, along with Japanese culture. In addition to the cooking activity that has offered by the site, the students have great opportunity to learn more about agriculture of paddy field, farming cycle, observation pond, alien species, spring water, topography, forest, as well as the structure of traditional folk house. The afternoon is also filled with hands-on creative experience such as reed cutting, removing invasive species, crafting, cotton weaving, rope making, and fixing shoji window.

The last day of the camp concludes with the final presentation and data report from each group’s site visit, where they interact with foreign culture, environment, and people.

We, PSU, would like to say thank you to our partners Chung San Medical University and Toho University for making SDGs Camp insightful filling with memorable events and full of lifetime experience which we will never forget.