Authors:
Shuya Kawaguchi
1
;
Hiroshi Mizoguchi
1
;
Ryohei Egusa
2
;
Yoshiaki Takeda
3
;
Etsuji Yamaguchi
3
;
Shigenori Inagaki
3
;
Fusako Kusunoki
4
;
Hideo Funaoi
5
and
Masanori Sugimoto
6
Affiliations:
1
Tokyo University of Science, Japan
;
2
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and Kobe University, Japan
;
3
Kobe University, Japan
;
4
Tama Art University, Japan
;
5
Soka University, Japan
;
6
Hokkaido University, Japan
Keyword(s):
Environmental Problems, Simulation, Virtual World, Score, Clear-Cut Logging, Evergreen Tree Logging, Tree Size, Children, Problem-solving Skills.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Collaboration and e-Services
;
Computer-Supported Education
;
e-Business
;
e-Learning
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Information Technologies Supporting Learning
;
Virtual Learning Environments
Abstract:
At present, there are many environmental problems, and environmental education is necessary to realize a sustainable society. The most important element of education is practical application of what has been learned, as this will deepen our understanding of the topic. As a part of environmental education, field work is conducted to encourage children to learn vegetation succession. However, because vegetation successions occur over an extended period of time, it is difficult for children to observe and participate throughout an entire vegetation succession cycle even if they do field work. Thus, as a step toward effective environmental education for a sustainable society, we developed a learning support system for children to better understand vegetation successions. This learning support system enables simulated forest management over a period of hundreds of years, providing users the opportunity to observe and learn which factors encourage and hinder plant growth in forests. The sy
stem simulates a period of approximately 300 years, and regularly scores the skills of the user according to the state of the forest. The changing score encourages the user to optimize forest management. As a first step of system evaluation, college students were asked to participate as users. Consequently, the participants suggested that this system can enhance understanding of, and problem-solving skills regarding, vegetation successions.
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