2015 Volume 11 Issue 4 Pages 359-365
Our group developed a new teaching material for life-cycle-thinking-based environmental education which is applicable to coursework in science in Japanese schools. This material was prepared as a part of the program for environmental education based on mobile phone technologies. The main subject of the present material is a battery including its social as well as technological issues in terms of its life cycle. Some of the assigned teaching topics were also designed to correspond to the teaching topics indicated in the curriculum guideline for coursework in science in Japanese junior high schools and high schools established by the Japanese government. This dual structure was considered to encourage a science teacher to apply the present material in usual science classes in addition to a special class with respect to the environment. The present material includes both a lecture-based part and group working. The lecture-based part was composed of five sections along with two educational objectives; the acquisition of fundamental knowledge of batteries and the recognition of the environmental impact of batteries’ use based on their life cycle. In the group working, the students will consider a better way in batteries’ use in their daily lives for considering a sustainable future on the basis of what they have learned in the lecture-based part. We also prepared a guideline for teachers to help their application of the present teaching material in usual science classes.
