August 1 to 31.2006
Sony Science Education Program for Children & SSTA
The 3rd Leadership-Development Workshop/ the 2 year training course starts!
The 3rd Leadership-Development Workshop was held from July 29th (Sat) to 31st (Mon) at the Overseas Vocational Training Association (OVTA) in Chiba City. The 2 year program to realize the new science education of the future has started with lectures of such distinguished professors like Mr. Hioki and Mr Kiyohara, the surveyors from the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), Prof. Matsumoto of Osaka Kyoiku University, Prof. Shimizu of Saitama University, Prof. Tsuyuki, a teacher at the elementary school of Tsukuba University, and Dr. Kitazawa, the trustee of Japan Science and Technology Agency.
We will put up the contents of the lectures and reports submitted by each training group on the foundation website. Please take a look.
Science Education Program for Children website:
http://www.sony-ef.or.jp/science/
Training course in blocks held at 4 separate locations around the country!
Training workshops at 4 different locations around the country were held. The program separates the country into 4 different blocks and aims to strengthen the inter-branch communication within the same block, at the same time striving to vitalize the overall quality of the block members by holding a training workshop that utilizes the characteristics of each region.
This year, the workshops were held in Nagano, Aomori, Yamaguchi, and Oita. The lecturers consisted of curriculum surveyors, university professors, and researchers. In each location, topics relevant to each branch were put forth, and active discussion about new curriculum or planning of unit structure were held throughout the night by trainees who gathered there from around the country.
We will successively list the contents of the lectures and trainings on our website.
Please see the following URL.
http://www-sec.sony-ef.or.jp/thema/index.html
Sony Preschool Education Program for Children
Report on the Project Report Presentation now on our website
Keyanomori Kindergarten (June 10th) Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture.
Tokiwakai Kindergarten, Division of Tokiwa College (June 17th) Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture
http://www.sony-ef.or.jp/preschool/jissen/index.html
Report on Applied Preschool Research Workshops now on our website
Wakabadai Nursery(June 30th), Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture
http://www.sony-ef.or.jp/preschool/kenkyu/index.html
Applied Preschool Research Workshops held
August 24th (Thur): Wakamatsu Kindergarten, Kita-Kyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture
Partially due to the fact it was held in August, many people including teachers of nurseries, kindergartens, elementary and junior high schools, schools for disabled children, and the children's parents participated the workshop. It turned out to be a lively workshop incorporating various new attempts like the video-conference and a panel-discussion where the elementary and junior high school students, and the teachers from kindergarten and elementary schools participated as panelists.
We have added a new category to Case-Examples/Teaching Materials section
Now the new semester has arrived, you can view the category of your interest in "Natural Environment" which has such subcategories as river-riverbank, sea-beach, trees-grove-forests, or the nature in the kindergarten.
http://www.sony-ef.or.jp/preschool/jirei/shizenkankyo.html
Web magazine: "Did You See That? The Scientific Mind"
Here is our theme for the month! Take a look.
- Vol.31 "Summer" think and use the water creatively
http://www.sony-ef.or.jp/preschool/webmagazine/webmag31.html - Vol.32 "Why? How?" Why doesn't it go as I want it?"
http://www.sony-ef.or.jp/preschool/webmagazine/webmag32.html
In September, the two volumes will be released;
vol.33 "Interacting with Nature" actively experiencing nature.
Vol.34 "I want to know" the joy of thinking and discovering with friends.
We hope you enjoy it!
Wellspring of Science Inspiration---Children's Schoolhouse of Dreams
From August 14 to 18th, the 2nd Wellspring of Science Inspirations was held at Sagamigawa Village Waka-ayu. 34 students from elementary and junior high schools attended this time.
In the opening ceremony, the students, parents and instructors all listened intently to Prof. Shirakawa, who talked about the importance and joy of learning from the nature, including the things he was interested in and had experienced in his days in elementary and junior high schools,
After this talk, the activities of "Learn from the Nature" began. The students were separated into 8 groups, and each pursued a research theme they had selected for themselves, such as learning about the structure and chemical component of a spider web, or observing the anatomy of a frog, and how it swims.
This year, the research themes the students had selected were very unique, one group researching about the "eye" of various insects and other creatures, for example.
The experiments of conductive plastic, stirling engine, sound and light, and wind-powered electricity were also conducted.
For the last day's lunch, the students ate tempura made of the wild grass they had collected by themselves. In the afternoon, the groups presented the findings for their research themes in "Learn from the Nature" and received comments and encouragement from Prof. Shirakawa.
* Detailed report will be up on our website later.
