2023 Volume 47 Issue 2 Pages 90-105
Currently, crises such as climate change and biodiversity loss are affecting the world. In this context, environmental education for children is becoming more and more important. In Japan, Satoyama, or the area between mountain foothills and arable land, where people and nature coexist in harmony, is a subject for biodiversity education. We are developing a “Satoyama Management Game” for effective learning about satoyama management. The purpose of this study was to conduct classes using the “Satoyama Management Game” and to evaluate the effectiveness and challenges of the “Satoyama Management Game” in its use in the classroom. The results of a questionnaire survey revealed that the classes utilizing the “Satoyama Management Game” were generally successful in helping elementary school students acquire knowledge about satoyama management. The results of the interaction analysis showed that in pairs of children who had acquired knowledge about the necessity of logging, awareness of the necessity of logging late-season species was achieved as they considered the management necessary to increase their scores in the game. For the pairs that had acquired knowledge of the need to remove deer, the realization that deer should be removed in the long run was achieved while thinking about how to increase the game score.
