2017 Volume 88 Issue 3 Pages 205-212
In order to analyze the importance of soil education, we surveyed a total of 1993 first through sixth grade elementary school students in Tokyo and Tochigi. After the analysis of the data, we obtained the following results: 1) The percentage of students who replied “I would like to know as much as possible about soil” decreased as students increased from first to sixth grade. 2) Students’ surroundings (the number of places with soil) influenced their degree of interest in soil. 3) As their knowledge of soil increased, the percentage of students who replied “I prefer to have as much soil around me as possible” increased. 4) About 68％ of the students who replied “I would like to have as much soil around me as possible” also replied “I would like to know as much about soil as possible.” 5) About 38％ of students who replied “I don’t touch soil at all” replied “I would not like to know about soil.” 6) More than 30％ of the sixth graders, but only about 10％ of the fifth graders in Tokyo replied “I would not like to know about soil.” 7) Of the students in Ichikai-machi, Tochigi, 70％ replied “There are many places with soil close to where I live” and only 10％ of these sixth graders replied “I would not like to know about soil.” Hence, we consider that soil education is important for sixth graders, especially those who live around places with less soil in their surroundings.
