On October 16, Saturday, Canon ran a "Lens-making Classroom" at the Science Museum (Kitanomaru Koen, Tokyo), as part of its education support activities.

The Science Museum displays exhibits related to scientific and industrial technology of the present and the future. It also operates a "friends of science" membership organization for children called the "Science Club." This Club holds a variety of activities for its members, such as experiments, computer classes and tours of the Museum's facilities. For example, the Club recently held a lens-making classroom for 14 club members.

In this classroom, first, the history of the camera was introduced, followed by an explanation of the construction of cameras and lenses. Next, using materials such as a magnifying glass and construction paper, the participants constructed a telephoto lens. After working hard on making their lens for about an hour, the children attached their home-made lens to a single-reflex digital camera and actually took some photos using it.
Fortuitously, the day of the class was a fair autumn day, and the participants went outdoors and happily enjoyed freely selecting autumn color trees, insects and other photo subjects and shooting them.
The impressions of the participating children included comments like, "I was amazed that a lens that could be made in an hour could take beautiful photos," "It was good to be able to learn about the history of the camera and related things" and "After I get home, I want to display the photo I took."