Wellspring of Science Inspiration
The 3rd Wellspring of Science Inspirations - Children's Schoolhouse of Dreams, held at Hakuba Village in Nagano Prefecture, Aug. 13-18, 2007
The Third Wellspring of Science Inspirations was held at "Hakubasou" and its surrounding natural environment in Hakuba Village of Kita-azumi County in Nagano Prefecture. Held between August 13th and 18th of 2007, there were 33 elementary and junior high school students participating from all over Japan. We had clear skies throughout the event, and the extreme heat notwithstanding, all participants were able to enjoy an active five night-six day stay through to the end. In addition, we had the cooperation of Hakuba Junior High School of Hakuba Village, as we used their science classroom for experiments.
At the opening ceremonies held at WING 21 of Hakuba Village, Dr. Shirakawa spoke about the importance and joy of "learning from nature" from the experiences he himself had in elementary school and junior high school collecting plants and butterflies. Not only students, but also their parents and instructors listened on intently.
Actual activities to "learn from nature" started in the afternoon, as the group entered the rich natural environment surrounding the Kinagashi River. The students split into mixed-age groups of five or six people and explored the surrounding waters, fields, rice paddies and forests, each in search of their own "why?". These "why?'s" were brought back and discussed with the group, and each group came up with their own unique topic to pursue for the ensuing five days.
Each of the 6 groups concentrated on exploring the topics that they independently chose from their experiences in nature. They inquired into matters of their concern such as whether frogs change color according to their surrounding environment, the structural mechanism of frogs’ limbs, the mode of life of drake fly larvae, the mode of life of Meghimatium fruhstorferi (medium to large land slug), the mode of life of ant-lions and the regularity in the direction that plantain lilies bloom, and taking butterfly specimens.
Other than the “learning from nature” activities, the children conducted experiments on electrically conductive plastics and observed insects at night on the 2nd day. They visited Tsugaike Natural Park and observed alpine plants and animals on the 3rd day, and observed the stars in the night. They also conducted scientific experiments on their topics of choice such as clip motors, hovercrafts, and sterling engines on the 4th day.
When conducting experiments on electrically conductive plastics, the children were skeptical on whether the plastics will actually conduct electricity, despite listening to Dr. Shirakawa’s lectures. After fabricating the plastic film, they tested if the film really had the electric conductivity by using a conductivity tester with an LED lamp.
On the last day, each group presented its research activity and result, followed by Dr. Shirakawa’s comments on them. At the closing ceremony, the children were pleased to receive a certificate of completion after Dr. Shirakawa awarded them individually.
