Abstract
The study of rocks in elementary and junior high schools includes observation of sedimentary rocks, as well as volcanic and plutonic rocks. There is a shortage of actual rock specimens in many schools and recent reports have indicated that learning environment does not allow for sufficient time to carefully observe rocks. In fact, most of the existing rock specimens in schools are commercially purchased and stored in small wooden boxes, which may not strongly motivate students to learn. In this study, two types of corrugated cardboard rock specimen boxes with process printing cardboard were created. These designs were intended to spark curiosity and interest among students. The boxes were filled with eight kinds of representative sedimentary or igneous rocks, most of which were collected at riverbeds or shores in Japan. Forty sets of these rock specimen boxes were provided to several education boards in Gifu Prefectures and used in science classes. Questionnaire surveys conducted for each class revealed that providing one set of these attractive, well-designed package per student significantly increased students’ motivation for learning. This effect was observed not only among those who like science learning but also among those who answered that they were not good in science.
