On July, 27 Canon Inc. launched the "Canon Summer Vacation Environment Theater" environmental education program.

The goal of this program is to raise consciousness about environmental concern among elementary and middle school students through a lecture and movie viewing. This was the first time Canon, Inc. held the event and about seventy local elementary students between grades four and six and their families attended.

The program, titled "Dinosaurs and Bio-diversity", included a lecture from dinosaur researcher Mr. Kunihiko Hisa and a highly acclaimed dramatic video called "Iguanas - Live Like the Dinosaurs"*.

Mr. Kunihiko, who is also a cartoonist, explained the various shapes and types of dinosaurs while using Visualizer projector to illustrate the dinosaurs unique features and help make his lecture easily understandable. In addition Mr. Kunihiko, based on his experience in Africa, compared animals familiar to the children such as lions to dinosaurs to help give them a deeper understanding of the lecture.

As for the movie viewing, the challenge of survival for iguanas was vividly portrayed through a Power Projector and some scenes even provoked unintentional cries of surprise from the children. Since recent research has shown that the social lives of iguanas closely resemble the actions of dinosaurs, the information from the lecture could be seen in the live action of the movie and even adults could find the program interesting enjoyable.

* The film shown is courtesy of NPO Nature Film Network