In this paper, a grip strength measurement system for exploring the minds of infants was introduced. It was developed based on the experience of the author, who was impressed with the development of infant behavior. Using this system, an attempt was made to devise an application as teaching materials to support thought-provoking for the scientific inquiry activities on infant behavior. The application was evaluated based on whether learners can ask new questions by themselves from the perspective of an instructor regarding a university student aiming to become a teacher of technical and home economics in junior high school. For evaluation practice, a question was set using the grip strength measurement system as teaching materials. The results of the evaluation practice showed that learners not only became interested in the instructor’s question about grip strength measurement methods for newborns and infants, but also expected to develop their own learning by finding and investigating questions independently. The effectiveness of the system as teaching materials to support thought-provoking for the scientific inquiry activities was suggested.

High school mathematics needs to reflect the process of finding mathematical problems from real phenomena and solving them mathematically in the learning process. Therefore, there is a great need for teaching materials including mathematical activities that go back and forth between real phenomena and mathematical abstraction. In this paper, we studied about mathematical activities included in engineering and technology, and developed a teaching material called “interpenetrating solid”. On interpenetrating solid as teaching material, the students explore interpenetrating lines, cross-sectional shapes, and the volume of the overlapping part. We manufactured interpenetrating solids that consisted of cylinders and cones, and clarified the student activity contents creating an interpenetrating solid.

In TIMS2019, there is a need to enhance learning that is scientifically explored from the perspective of increasing the significance and usefulness of learning science and piquing scientific curiosity. In this study, we take up the learning of pendulum movement, which is an important learning content at all stages of elementary school, junior high school, and high school, and develop teaching material toys that rotate at the tip of a swaying cantilever beam. The students can make the toys while exploring for themselves. Basic experiments are conducted to consider the parameters that affect the toys motion, and we analyze the motion of the toys to clarify optimal conditions and operating principles. Furthermore, we use it as practice for elementary school students and clarify the educational value of this teaching material.

In the course structure of study for junior high school, the mechanisms using friction, engaging, and cam are shown as learning contents for the technology class. Therfore, we focused on the automaton built with various mechanisms as teaching materials. Automaton is the automated puppets that resemble moving humans or animals, built to impress and/or entertain people. In this study, we develop automaton teaching materials using a music box as a power source, and clarify the explorable learning contents included within the music box: the gear mechanism, the spring as a power source, the governor as a speed regulator, and the sound, for example. Furthermore, we propose the flow of automaton creating activities consisting of introduction, disassembly of music boxes, observation of teaching materials, and automaton making.

Toward the development of STEAM education based on programming education in elementary schools, we tried to classify 35 practices from the “Guide to Programming Education in Elementary Schools”(MEXT) and “Programming Education Portal Focusing on Elementary Schools”(MEXT) based on the framework of the 5 Steps of Design Thinking (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test) proposed by the d.school. Consequently, the 35 cases were classified into CL1 “Work-type programming practice” (18 cases), CL2 “PDCA-type programming practice” (7 cases), CL3 “Programming practice applying Design Thinking” (6 cases), and CL4 “User empathy-type programming practice” (4 cases). Of these, CL3 was characterized by the fact that the children set problems in relation to the real world and solved them creatively through programming.

This study proposes a systematic instructional strategy in learning measurement and control for elementary and junior high schools in Japan. Although elementary school is compulsory, there are issues in the curriculum such as gaps in content and duplication of educational material among schools. To solve this problem, we proposed an instructional strategy consisting of three principles. This instructional strategy aims at the acquisition of knowledge and skills related to measurement and control based on the increasing complexity and sophistication of problem-solving. To demonstrate the versatility of the instructional strategy, two types of measurement and control boards were developed for a fan and an automobile. In addition, to demonstrate the usefulness of the instructional strategy, we conducted a survey on the teaching sequence based on the subject examples and found that there were differences in perceptions among the instructors.

The purpose of this study was to develop a digital scale work experiment kit as teaching material for learning how to handle a load cell. Using the kit, students can learn about how to handle a load cell from the viewpoint of attachment through work and experimentation. First, the weighing accuracy was confirmed based on a performance evaluation experiment using the kit's weighing display. Next, the kit was evaluated based on a work experiment involving practical training of university students aiming to be technical and industrial teachers on the use of this kit as teaching material. As a result of the evaluation, it was shown that the kit not only increases interest and concern regarding load cells, it also provides a learning effect that experientially deepens the knowledge and understanding of how to handle a load cell. The effectiveness of the kit as teaching material was confirmed.

This study focused on the importance of the competencies of technological assessment and utilization as a new ability required in modern society, and analyzed the characteristics of the teaching contents of energy conversion technology based on critical thinking in relation to the energy issue discussed in the previous study. In this study, the survey regarding the elements of critical thinking in the teaching contents of each subject conducted for teachers by the Delphi technique. The survey was conducted in the subjects of junior high school the technology and the science, and social studies of elementary and junior high school. The survey results showed that all three subjects, except for one item in science, judged that either element of critical thinking was necessary for each subject's teaching contents. Furthermore, it was suggested that regarding integrated thinking, all subjects were assessed as having a high need in common, and the fact that science and social studies involve reasoning and judgmental thinking centered on concept acquisition in integrated thinking, whereas technology involves thinking through decision-making was extracted as a subject-specific characteristic.

Technology education in Japan is taught through problem-solving. Students must deal with problems and issues from work with a means of solving them for them to be trained to solve problems proactively. In this study, the way to measure learning was defined as “thinking and making decisions while predicting how to exercise acquired knowledge and skills to solve a problem” and was organized into metacognitive knowledge (prospect I) and metacognitive activity (prospect II). Based on this framework, we proposed a curriculum structure for iterative implementation and guidance using burndown charts, which are used in project management to record and monitor work processes. Burndown charts are highly versatile because they enable students to clearly see the changes in their work processes, and they are easy to create and modify. In addition, they are easy to read and easy to use and thus, are appropriate for use in secondary schools. These results suggest that this framework is effective for problem-solving activities in education.

While the 4^th Industrial Revolution advances, it is demanded from human resources necessary for manufacturing industry that we simultaneously imbibe the technical knowledge of a mechanical design and machine work and technical knowledge about the digital. It is necessary for us to understand the difficulty and interest of manufacturing at an education stage. We developed the air engine teaching material and practiced the training of the manufacturing educational front with a class. It is a class to let you understand the structure and mechanism of the air engine which utilized a simulation function of the 3D CAD and production of the parts, assembling, and adjustment. Consequently, it was made clear that those class trainings of air engine production to acquire a digital technology and a basic manufacturing technology effectively while experiencing a series of flows of the manufacturing. We were able to express the difficulty and importance of assembling and the adjustment work that we could not experience by the simulation of the 3D CAD.

This paper developed a self-assessment scale for high school students to assess their competencies as outlined in the Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Assessment Framework developed by UNESCO, and verified the reliability and validity of the scale. MIL, an integrated literacy based on information literacy and media literacy, is considered to empower citizens’ personal, professional, and social participation. We constructed a scale based on the framework of the Global MIL Assessment Framework and conducted a survey among 958 high school students. The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a second-order model fit well. The internal consistency was within an acceptable range. Additionally, we observed a difference in scale scores based on the difference in the learning experiences of media literacy and information literacy. These results confirm the construct validity of the scale. Furthermore, criterion-related validity was confirmed using Web Access Literacy scale developed by Yamamoto as an external criterion. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the high school student version of the MIL self-assessment scale is generally valid.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the influence of students’ optimization thinking in technological problem-solving on their critical thinking and creative attitude in the (2) “Problem Solving by Materials and Processing Technology” of the contents “A: Materials and Processing Technology,” in junior high school technology classes. We conducted the survey on 321 first-grade junior high school students using the “Scale of Optimization Thinking in Technological Problem Solving” developed by the authors, the “Critical Thinking Scale in Making Activities" developed by Uenosono et al., and the "Creative Attitude Scale” developed by Shigemasu et al. We proposed a hypothetical causal model in which “considering user needs” and “considering constraints” in optimization thinking combine to cause “modeling the problem,” and these followed by “searching for a comprehensive solution” to enhance “critical thinking in making activities,” and finally these lead to the formation of “creative attitudes.” As a result of a covariance structural analysis based on this hypothetical causal model, the goodness of fit of the model showed CFI=1.00, AGFI=0.99, and RMSEA=0.00; it was indicated that the model had sufficient validation.

This study aimed to develop teaching materials for an automatic dimension measurement system for learning　the measurement and control of a pneumatic cylinder with a length measurement function and evaluate the performance of this system from an instructor’s perspective. The proposed system automatically measures the height of a beverage can while pressing a lever attached to the piston rod of a pneumatic cylinder that can detect the displacement of the piston rod using an encoder via pneumatic control. First, the author confirmed the performance of this system, i.e., sorting beverage cans of different heights. Next, the author evaluated the present system as teaching materials in practical training in terms of wiring, operation, and assessment of the pneumatic cylinder with a length measurement function from an instructor’s perspective. The evaluation results indicated that the teaching materials would arouse interest in practical training and result in an experiential acquisition of the knowledge of automation technology for a system that sorts workpieces with different heights, thus suggesting the utility of the proposed system as teaching materials.

Effective instruction for acquiring basic programming skills is an issue in high school education. The purpose of this research is to propose a basic programming skill education that incorporates a variety of the related learning items and to study the usefulness of the proposed education by statistically analyzing the relationship between the basic skills and proficiency level of the related learning items. The results of the analysis based on teaching practice revealed that there was a moderately significant correlation between the proficiency level of writing formulas in spreadsheet software and basic programming skills. Clues for individualized instruction at an early stage of programming education can be obtained by instructing on the writing formulas in spreadsheet software and obtaining the proficiency level in advance. In addition, it was expected that incorporating the learning of inputting cell functions with complex structures in advance may allow the students to learn programming more smoothly.