We investigated the effect of mixed cooking of waxy barley with rice, by soaking it in water at 60℃ for 15 min, on the sugar levels and textural properties before and after refrigeration. The pH of the cooking water decreased immediately after soaking, and proportionally to the amount of barley added. The levels of total sugars, reducing sugars, maltose, and glucose increased significantly with time in the mixed cooking system at 60℃. The observations suggested that mixed cooking promoted an increase in sugar levels by regulating the pH of water, probably because of maltose production by β-amylase of barley and maltose decomposition by α-glucosidase of rice. The barley cooked by this method and subsequently stored in a refrigerator showed a minimal staling tendency. For rice, staling was suppressed by mixed cooking at standard temperature, and there was no effect in all mixing ratios when cooked at 60℃.

  To clarify future research issues, we reviewed research on food education practices related to school lunches.

  The study was based on extracts from the Japanese databases CiNii and J-STAGE. A total of 259 academic papers published since 2005 were detected. Among them, 166 academic papers for elementary school students, junior high school students, and high school students were selected.

  The papers were classified into three categories: educational practice related (37), research (101), and “other” (28). Educational practice studies accounted for only 13% of the total. In educational practice studies, such educational effects as raising interest and creating happy feelings through school lunches, and developing children's personalities were examined.

  To discuss the future of educational activities through school lunches, more educational practice studies and detailed research studies are needed.

  In this paper, I have confirmed how thinking creatively is involved in “cultivating the qualities and abilities for imagining and creating a way of life,” which constitutes a goal of the new government curriculum guidelines for Family Studies. In doing so, I have revealed the following:

  1. This is consistent with the task of devising “abilities and attitudes for trying to improve one's way of life in the face of challenges,” which Family Studies seeks to cultivate under the current curriculum guidelines. In other words, the task of devising creative solutions may be understood as a quality and ability comparable with the attitude and ability of trying to improve one's way of life in the face of challenges.

  2. Activities that involve thinking creatively constitute learning activities that are involved in the cultivation of qualities and abilities for imagining and creating a way of life in that they a) are able to link or associate knowledge and skills with existing knowledge and life experience, and b) are applied to scenarios and conditions and are linked with goals and values for solving problems.

  3. The quality and ability of thinking creatively in the new curriculum guidelines can be understood as a quality and ability that has comprehensively grasped the various tasks that comprise a way of life. Through a method of apprehension that has abstracted the tasks of a way of life in this way, the quality and ability of thinking creatively is sublimated into a versatile problem-solving ability, thereby constituting a practical response to the Family Studies mindset of “devising ways to live a better life.”

  This study aimed to build a behavioral decision-making model to reduce wastage of food at home by conducting a questionnaire survey among high school students in Kanto Region. This study was based on a factor linkage model of environmentally conscious behavior and regulatory factors that promote behaviors to reduce wastage of food at home. Covariance based structural equation modeling indicated that decision-making for household food waste reduction consisted of two stages. The first stage included the determinants of creating a goal of reducing wastage of food at home among high school students as risk perception and coping effectiveness, whereas the second stage included the determinants of action intention as assessments of costs/benefits, social norms, and feasibility.

  A program to learn about “sound noise,” which will be added to the course of study in elementary school home economics classes from 2020, was developed. Two sound noise cases were assumed: sound radiation through windows to the outside, and sound propagation through vibration of the floor. Tablet devices, which are widely used as ICT tools, were used to quantitatively measure the volume of noise. Using the developed two sound models, classes were conducted with 97 elementary school fifth-grade students, and their improvement in daily noise understanding was measured from pre- and post-tests. We found that our proposed ICT contents, which corresponded to GIGA school concept, were effective for a basic understanding of sound noise and for improving soundproofing awareness and tablet devices to make comfortable home environments.