Educational Program Using Agricultural Sensor Data For Elementary School Students -Dr. Doroemon Project-.

Doraemon is one of the most popular cartoons that children love all over the world. “Doro” means soil in Japanese. In this presentation, we introduce an educational program “Dr. Doroemon Project” which includes training through thinking by using rice cultivation in the bucket by SRI method and data analysis for the 5-6th grade elementary school students in Tokyo, Japan during 2011-2012. Japanese education system has recently focused on the “Integrated Studies.” The objective is to enhance the following abilities of pupils through the multidisciplinary content -namely, to think on their own, to make decision and to solve problems. Some schools adopted the cultivation but the ministry reported that some of the contents was not working very well. Therefore, we have been challenged to make a new program which includes cultivation and enough opportunities to enhance these abilities. Rice cultivation in a bucket is a popular method in Japanese schools because of space-saving. In this program, the students grew rice by SRI method as compared to conventional method in the bucket. SRI stands for the System of Rice Intensification which can produce 20-50% more yield with fewer seeds, water and fertilizers according to the SRI Guideline. After the harvest, the students compared the data such as soil moisture and temperature using the worksheet. We evaluated their reactions by open end approach method. As a result, this program provided more than half of the students to opportunities to think on their own by utilizing their scientific knowledge and ideas. In addition, some of the students compared and associated two kinds of data. This suggests that the program contributes to improving their ability of thinking on their own. It is concluded that adopting cultivation and data analysis has certain positive impacts on the students and the “Dr. Doroemon Project” is useful for the students to have the opportunities to intensify their thinking ability.