Science Summer Camp for Lower Secondary School Students : an Educational Attempt in Okinawa by a Regional University Staffs

Abstract

An event named Science Summer Camp for Lower Secondary School Students was conducted by the Faculty of Education, University of the Ryukyus staffs under a financial support from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) with the intention to motivate the students to study the natural sciences. It was composed of an experiment in the laboratory and a field trip to northern part of Okinawa Island with a one night accommodation at the field station of the university in the area. The following objects were selected for scientific observation in the field trip: 1) An outcrop showing alternation of Paleogene sandstone and mudstone at the bottom of a valley lying deep among the mountains. 2) Wild plants and animals in the mountain forest in nighttime. 3) The Milky Way and some significant constellations seen with the naked eye. 4) Jupiter and some nebulas observed through compact telescopes; and 5) a mangrove forest at low tide in daytime. The experiment in the laboratory, in which the participants manipulated some kind of glassware, was planned on decomposition of protein and fat in an artificial digestive liquid. About twenty students participated in this program. Field activities generally involve the risks of schedule changes induced by the sudden change of the weather, and as such, adequate alternative contents must be planned and prepared previously. As a result, because of the stormy weather, observation of the outcrop was abandoned, and night field observations in the mountain forest and the primitive astronomical observations were also altered to lectures using a slide pictures, preserved specimens and alive individuals of the wild animals and manipulations of celestial globes and compact equatorial telescopes at the experimental station respectively. Each scientific contents of the conducted program were evaluated to be highly intelligible, and the participants had intellectually enjoyed the program. Most of participants evaluated the whole program of this Summer Camp to be attractive and intended to participate the sequel to this event. To hold similar events for students of lower secondary school successively, we need practical and financial support systems inside and/or outside of the university.