Science literacy has needed to be developed by Education for Sustainable Development. However, Japanese society has faced to decrease in motivation for school study such as flight from science. To confirm this tendency and to investigate the relation between liking for science and that for learning electricity in a junior high school, we surveyed students' general awareness toward the subjects and liking for science areas in eight junior high schools in Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture. The rate of students' liking for the school subjects has been decreasing with school grade. The 2nd and 3rd students who hate science became dislike science at the 2nd grade in a junior high school. More than 50% of science-disliking students described that the area of electricity was responsible for disliking science. Especially, female students tend to hate learning electricity more than male students. Learning the areas of electricity would be responsible for flight from science in junior high school students.

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It is well known that consumption of all energies in the world leads to environmental degradation. In terms of using electricity, the emission of CO₂ by steam power generation is serious problem. It is therefore considered that the education with regard to relationship between environment and electric energy consumption is important for student in college or university. This paper describes the development of study system of power system interconnection and photo voltaics, the modification of study system of lighting which has been ever practiced in Ube national college of technology. It is expected that the consciousness between energy and environment of students who has experienced student laboratory will be changed. It is considered from the results of questionnaire survey and comments of students that this educational system will be useful for some of students who are studying electrical engineering to increase the consciousness with regard to the problem between electric energy consumption and environment.

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The paper proposes the engineering ethics education method for students on the basis of continuous education to improve communication ability. First, through a debate, the students acquire the fundamental skills required to marshal their arguments, to construct the rebuttals and to summarize the debates. Secondly, the students study the fundamental techniques to make a presentation on technical subjects related to electrical engineering. Following these classes, in the lecture of engineering ethics, the students probe the cause of each accident and consider the better means for avoiding such an accident, each other. In most cases, the students can express right and commonsensical opinions from an ethical standpoint. However, they can hardly make judgments when the situations such as the human relations in the above accidents are set concretely. During the engineering ethics class, the students come to know that human relations behind the case make the ethical matters more complicated. Furthermore, they come to understand that facilitating daily communications with co-workers and/or bosses is very important in order to avoid the accidents. The recognition of the students is just the results of the continuous education through three years. It can be said that the engineering ethics education thus constructed makes the students raise such spontaneous awareness and their ethical qualities as engineers.

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Today, X-ray computed tomography (CT) devices are used in a wide range of fields including medical and industrial applications. It is not easy for students in engineering fields including electrical and electronic engineering to understand the electrical and image analysis principles of X-ray CT devices. Also, in teaching facilities that educate the radiographers who actually work with this equipment in medical fields, testing and training are usually done using real X-ray CT devices. Since these devices are large and have a complex internal structure, students are currently limited with regard to the types of testing and training that they are able to perform. This makes it difficult for medical students to gain a proper understanding of the principles behind X-ray CT devices. There is consequently a need for a simple educational test system that enables engineering and medical students to understand how X-ray CT devices work. We report on the construction of an educational test system that simulates an X-ray CT device based on optical heterodyne detection using laser light for simulation experiments, and on the construction of a system that is capable of performing image reconstruction experiments using data obtained with this test system. We also report on a test system that is capable of acquiring simulated X-ray CT images.

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To investigate the perception of science and technology of university students, the scholastic test concerning electric field was conducted in this paper. The scholastic test, which was conducted to university students, is based on the scholastic test provided by the National Institute for Educational Policy Research of Japan's Curriculum Research Center. The result of the scholastic test showed that 1. For the questions related to “A4(i): Maintenance check and prevention of accidents of equipment” in the junior high school government guidelines for teaching, the percentage of correct answer was the lowest and 2. Not only liberal arts course students but also science course students do not have sufficient perception concerning the capability of “Device and Creativity”, because the percentage of correct answer to the questions concerning “Device and Creativity” was about 70%. The results of this study will give us the directivity of electricity education.

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The Department of Engineering of Fukuoka Institute of Technology introduced special courses for improvement of basic mathematic abilities of new students focusing on their smooth transition to specialized learning courses of Engineering. Self-inspection sheet was developed for inspection of their own learning process to give them a clue for planning to next stage. In order to let students to have effective learning process, students had a small test to fill out self-inspection sheet in every stage. To estimate efficacy of the courses, average score of each stage was calculated. Also, analysis of each student's tendency of learning and psychological situation showed that the average score were improved concerning three of the four subjects. On the other hand, the inspection made clear that more students had tendency to request some supports for better understanding of the topics. The self-inspection is effective for students to develop their study habit and improve their abilities, but some students need another way of support for better understanding of the topics.

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We determined that more than half the number of electrical and electronic experiments should be conducted by the students themselves to develop the skills of individual students. We evaluated learning results of the students in experimental classes more rigorous than before. In this paper, our approach in developing a curriculum of experimental classes for five years and its usefulness are discussed.

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The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering followed the motivation for university entrance of the first-year students for the academic years 2005-2010, Nagoya Institute of Technology (NIT). In the present study, we analyzed that survey and compared the results with those in the Faculty of Engineering, Osaka University (OU) where similar survey has been conducted in the academic year 2004. The results show that interest in the acquisition of knowledge and skills is high in OU and NIT at all the academic years. On the other hand, in OU and NIT at the academic year 2005, interest in an employment rate is not a major factor, and then this interest increases annually in NIT to the academic year 2010.

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Questionnaire investigation is implemented to the college students in Thailand and Japan, concerning electric and energy. As a result, students in both countries understand well that electric and energy are related each other. However, there are many students in Thailand who never saw photovoltaic generation and wind-power generation. Difference in knowledge of energy among the students of same generation is clear, by crossing the border.

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When performing experimental demonstration of optical communication by using an simplified experimental set, clear music transmission can be achieved in the case where an LED, rather than a photodiode, is used as a light receiving component. Measurements of output voltage waveforms from an LED as a light receiving component reveal that when a distance from a light source is relatively short, the output waveforms show no distortion, resulting in better music transmission performances.

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The “Virtual Walk System” has been developed to support rehabilitation therapy in homes. In the system, a user has been able to perform walking-like exercise on a fitness machine called a stepper. In front of the user, a projected image of a vast virtual reality space is generated by 3-dimensional computer graphics (3DCG). The user's movement is measured and the projected image changes just like the user is walking in the virtual space. Viewing the changing image, the user can enjoy the exercise. In this study, we have decomposed the virtual walk system into two modules (the measurement and control module operated by a microcomputer board and the 3DCG module operated by a personal computer) to facilitate rapid development. Then we have introduced two kinds of new equipment, i.e., a bicycle for cycling exercise and a treadmill for walking exercise. We have also developed a treadmill control system by which a user can easily change the walking speed during exercise.

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Effect of O₂ on the decolorization of indigo carmine and on the production of dissolved species such as NO₂^-, NO₃^-, O₃ and H₂O₂ in the treatment water by pulsed discharge in water droplet spray was investigated by controlling the O₂/N₂ ratios as carrier gases in the reactor. The decolorization rate gradually increased with rise in O₂ ratio, which reached a constant value in the range of 50% to 90% O₂ ratio and decreased in pure O₂. The maximum value was about 2 times as high as that of 20% O₂ ratio. The decolorization efficiency was not affected by gas flow rate in the range of 4 L/min to 50 L/min. NO₂^- in the treatment water was only detected in pure N₂, but NO₃^- was produced in O₂/N₂. NO₂^- added to the treatment water was not oxidized in pure N₂, but was perfectly converted to NO₃^- in O₂/N₂. These results implied that hydroxyl radical produced in gas phase does not directly contribute to the oxidation of substances in water. O₃ concentration gradually increased with rise in O₂ ratio, whereas H₂O₂ concentration decreased. In the range of 50 to 80% O₂ ratio, O₃ and H₂O₂ concentrations were approximately constant value, similar to the trend of decolorization rate. Moreover rate constants on various gas mixing ratio of O₂/N₂ were determined from the kinetics study. These results suggested that hydroxyl radical produced in the treatment water by the chain reactions of O₃ and hydroperoxy radical (HO₂·) plays an important role of the decomposition of molecules in water.

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We examine spectra of VHF electromagnetic (EM) waves obtained by a VHF Digital Broadband Interferometer (DITF) operated on the ground. The DITF is a two- and three-dimensional VHF source mapping system for VHF EM waves in band between 25 and 100MHz based on a technique of the broadband digital interferometry. We divide leaders into two classes by an aspect of leader development based on three-dimensional discharge channels. The spectra of VHF EM waves associated with the leaders progressing to the ground peaks around 25MHz, while that of the leaders propagating horizontally inside thunderclouds peaks around 40MHz.

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The microwave heating system using evanescent wave for soldering fine circuits had been proposed. The evanescent wave is useful for the microwave heating very locally. The heating system consists of a matching circuit and a resonator for enhancing the magnetic field around the mouth of a circular waveguide in which the strong evanescent waves are excited. The experiments of heating lead-free solders have been done with the microwave at a frequency of 2.3-2.35 GHz and a power of about 200 W. The lead-free solder can be heated locally to be melted with microwave without any breakdown in the resonator.

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