Shiga Prefecture is sometimes described as having advanced environmental education. However, the details of environmental education at primary and lower secondary schools in Shiga Prefecture have not been investigated. In this study, the authors investigate the status of environmental education at primary and lower secondary schools in Shiga Prefecture, and attempt to clarify issues for consideration through comparison with national surveys.

  No remarkable issues were identified for primary schools. With regard to lower secondary schools, issues were discovered in the implementation of teacher training regarding environmental education in schools, as well as teachers’ degree of interest in environmental education and the implementation rate of such education.

  The philosophy of river management has changed towards the proper integration of modern flood control methods and traditional flood control methods. Such changes in the philosophy need to be shared not only between the flood control administration and flood control specialists, but also with the public. However, there are few teaching materials that reflect this philosophy in both science education and social studies education. Therefore, we developed and practiced a program for primary schools to teach various flood control methods including traditional flood control of Anou River, Mie Prefecture, where traditional flood control methods continue to be used. The flood

  control methods taken up in the program are as follows:

  ・Strong levees made of concrete

  ・Levees that are partly lowered to allow water to flow into the reservoir

  ・Levees that are discontinuous to allow water to flow into the reservoir

  The program consists of the following contents:

  1. Visiting the Anou River and making river maps.

  2. Recognizing dangerous places and their conditions by reading hazard maps.

  3. Learning three types of levees using jigsaw methods.

  4. Visiting the levees.

  5. Learning about the Anou River management plan from the prefecture's flood control officer.

  6. Building levee models using a 3D printer.

  The level of student’s understanding was generally high, and they were able to obtain a more precise and systematic understanding of flood control than known before participating in the program.

  After the Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) issued new educational materials (supplementary readers) on radiation for school children in November 2011. The readers were revised in 2014 and then again in 2018. They provide information focusing on situations after the accident, scientific knowledge on radiation, and the progress of recovery in Fukushima Prefecture. On the other hand, the readers have received much criticism from teachers and citizens, including that there is little information on the facts and lessons learned about the accident. In order to objectively and quantitatively clarify the characteristics of the Japanese government's supplementary readers on radiation, content analysis was applied. As the result of the text mining and sentiment analysis, the following characteristics were clarified: 1) the most frequently appearing word is “hoshasen” (radiation) in each reader; 2) “shizen” (nature) is seen to have a stronger co-occurrence with “hoshasen” (radiation) in the 2011 and 2018 readers when compared to the 2014 edition; 3) positive words “riyou” (use, noun) or “tsukau” (use, verb) ranks within the top 20 words which have most strongest co-occurrence with “hoshasen” (radiation) in the 2011 and 2018 readers; and 4) the negative word “osen” (contamination) was nearly deleted from the text in of the 2018 edition, that is, removed from the 2014 version. The results of content analysis indicate that the explanation of natural radiation increased again in the 2018 reader, similar to that of the 2011 edition, while the words describing the actual pollution caused by the Fukushima nuclear accident were deleted.

  We conducted an education session that included designing wind turbines with an aim to foster hope for the future in children. The session was held with 134 elementary school students in the fourth grade. The contents of the educational program were: (1) a lecture on issues regarding energy and the environment, (2) designing and making new types of wind turbines constructed out of thick paper, (3) conducting experiments to evaluate their power generation capability (i.e., the activity was first carried out individually, and then in groups of three or four), (4) analyzing experimental data and presenting the results to the participants in groups, and (5) a lecture on the characteristics of wind turbines, disadvantages of renewable energy, and the energy mix of power sources. According to the questionnaire-based survey, more than 90% of the participants enjoyed designing and making the wind turbines, conducting experiments, analyzing the experimental data, and were motivated to continue to create more efficient wind turbines. However, the percentage of participants who were satisfied with the experimental results and their own presentations was less than 80%, and 60% felt that there is a possibility that the issue pertaining to energy and the environment can be solved. According to the results of the structural equation modeling, participants who were satisfied with the experimental results of the power generated by the wind turbines that they had created were inspired by the successful results of other groups. Additionally, these participants felt that the issues pertaining to energy and the environment can be solved. We conclude that to foster hope for the future in children through inquiry-based learning, it is necessary to give them sufficient time or set a target to achieve success so that they can satisfy themselves.