Since my university is built on a mountain, there are a lot of sloping roads on the campus.

Some students told me that they want to create a vehicle they can ride on the longest slope with many curves. I thought that it is a student-like idea and found it really interesting.

After half a year at the parent-teacher conference, I got to hear from one of the parents that her son was down because their plan met with a setback, so I offered to be the project manager to support them. That was the beginning of the Todoroki Project.

As we moved forward with the production plan, financing arrangements, and the plan to ride the vehicle safely on the campus, other teachers got interested in this project. At the time of actually riding the vehicle within the campus, we got the chance to hold an exhibition and get interviewed by a newspaper and a TV channel.

I would like students to try what they find interesting. When you try, you get feedback. When you take the next action based on the feedback, the project moves forward. This time we achieved more than we expected such as an exhibition and media coverage.

Through this experience, I think they learned how important to value what they want to do and also learned the fun of thinking and taking actions on their own.

I would also like to note here that all of the Todoroki project members have very good characters. Their humanity was one of the big reasons why the project was supported by the people around them.

私の所属する大学は山に建っているため、学内に坂道がとても多い。

その中でも最長でカーブの多い道を下るための乗り物を作りたい！と学生達が話してくれました。とても学生らしい計画で面白い！と私は思いました。

その半年後、保護者面談の席で「計画が頓挫して息子が落ち込んでいる」と聞き、計画をサポートできれば… とプロジェクトマネージャーを申し出たことが、彼らとの轟プロジェクトの始まりでした。

制作計画、資金調達、学内を安全に走るための計画などを進めていく中で、教員の方々がこの取り組みに興味を持ってくれました。そして、学内を走る頃には展示の話も頂き、新聞の取材やTVの取材も受けるようになりました。

学生には、面白いと思ったことは試して欲しいです。試すとフィードバックがあり、その内容をふまえて次の行動をとると、少しずつ前進して行きます。今回は、展示やマスコミの取材など、思い描いた以上の成果を得られました。

この経験は、自分がやりたい事を大切にする姿勢や、自分で考えて自分で行動する事の面白さを彼らに伝えたと思います。

轟メンバーは本当に気持ちのいいメンバーで、彼らの持つ人間性が 轟の活動を周囲に応援させた事も、ここに記します。