Curious and wide-eyed, a group of 20 Japanese elementary schoolstudents visited the Department of Industry and TechnologyWednesday.
The department played host to 10 fifth-graders and 10sixth-graders in the graphic arts lab.
The students are from Okazaki, Japan. Similar to the BurrisLaboratory School, their elementary school is a laboratory schoolthat has a connection with the nearby Aichi University.
The students visited with Alan Leduc of the manufactuirngtechnology program and Hans Kellogg of the graphic arts managementprogram.
Hans has two children that attend Burris and had worked with theschool in Japan before, giving graphic arts presentations. With thenews of the visiting students from Japan, Kellogg was asked todevelop a presentation as an introduction to graphic arts.
Kellogg's presentation focused on the printing process andincorporated the use of pattern variation in prints. Showing thestudents examples of napkins, newspapers, boxes and wrapping paper,he exposed the students to various types of printing often notthought of.
After his presentation, students were instructed in making theirown wrapping paper from potato cut-outs.
Kellogg said that he wanted to show the students how to take onepattern and vary it by using different frequencies, rotations andmore similar to wrapping paper prints.
"The visit went very well, I was excited to see their reactionand to see how well they did with the language barrier," Kelloggsaid.
Leduc worked with the students on computer-aided drafting. Usingthe program "Unigraphics," he showed the students how to create athree-dimensional block model. Leduc said the program allows thepossibility for three-dimension modeling used in manufacturing andengineering. The program enables users to create a real part on thecomputer that can be rotated so that it can be viewed from allangles.
Ball State members of Graphic Arts Unlimited assisted in thehands-on parts of the presentations.
Melanie Simmonds, President of Graphic Arts Unlimited, said thatthey supervised the visit to ensure that everything wentsmoothly.
"The GAU is trying to get more involved with the community,"Simmonds said. "We are trying to advocate graphic arts and to beable to advocate it to the Japanese students is a good start."
Wednesday's visit is not the Japanese students' only stop atBall State. Thursday the students will have an Olympic day, filledwith athletic activities, such as races, in the field across fromBall Memorial Hospital. Friday, Burris will conclude the students'week-long visit with a ceremony, and Saturday they will leave forJapan.
The visits take place every two years, beginning with 1995'sinaugural visit. Students from Burris will visit Okazaki, Japan, inFebruary 2004.
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