March 1 to 31.2005
Sony Science Education Program for Children
Sony Science Teachers Association (SSTA) Assistance Activities
Board of Trustees (March 12)
Changes to Board of Trustees Membership: Tadamasa Matsuo retires as trustee, Shuji Nozaki appointed Leader of Fukushima Chapter, Takatsugu Kudo, Leader of Aomori Chapter, appointed Standing Trustee.
Sachiko Abe retires as auditor, Michinori Ueda, Assistant-Leader of Hyogo Chapter, appointed auditor.
Changes to Research and Planning Committee Membership: Hideaki Yano, the Committee Chairman, retains post as standing trustee but retires chairmanship.
Note that Chairman Yano will continue working with the Leadership-Fostering Workshop until the summer workshop, after which Standing Trustee Shuji Nozaki will take over and hold two posts.
Research and Planning Committee
The Committee will focus on the three areas of leadership fostering, young teacher training (training plus accepting submission of reports) and research. Half of the committee will be made up of new members, with special consideration given to rotation of personnel when selecting new candidates.
Young Teacher Training Program (Tentative Name)
A survey of the Board of Trustees and Research and Planning Committee was conducted to elicit proposals for suitable program content. The results were discussed at the Board of Trustees meeting held March 12.
Open recruitment will be used for recruiting members for the Young Teacher Training Program.
The Research and Planning Committee will be responsible for conducting the program, a task that will involve choosing program themes, membership age bracket, size of reports, makeup of screening committee, type of awardments and scheduling program activities. All clerical work for the Young Teacher Training Program will be done by the Foundation. The Foundation will also provide funding for awardments and other costs.
Notices announcing the new program will be issued during 2005, the year designated as the notification period. This will give the prospective members plenty of time to prepare for submission of applications scheduled for 2006.
Young Teacher Training Workshop
Young trainees are being recruited from the various SSTA chapters, with a total of 110 members from 42 chapters having submitted applications as of the end of March. All designated 24 members for the Kanto Region young teacher training venue have now been chosen.
Theme-Development Workshop
Plan manifestoes have been submitted by the Okayama and Niigata Chapters (both August or later) and the Fukuoka Kita Chapter (February). The current chairman (Yano) and assistant chairmen (Akiyoshi, Komori and Ishikawa) are now conducting discussions of plan content. The Oita Chapter (August) is also planning to submit its own plan.
Overseas Study Workshop
The first preliminary workshop was held here in Japan March 5 for four workshop members. The overseas study workshop will be conducted at the Harvard Graduate School of Education from July 20 to 26.
Sony Preschool Education Program for Children
The Sony Preschool Education Program for Children has announced the requirements for submitting preschool educational project essays for the 2005 awardment year. The Program looks forward to receiving new educational project plans created with the aim of "fostering children with an appreciation for the sciences" from nursery schools and kindergartens throughout Japan.
The deadline for submitting educational project essays for the 2005 awardment year is September 12. Those interested can find detailed information at the following website.
URL http://www.sony-ef.or.jp/preschool/2005/index.html
