Development of new teaching materials that reduce the burden on elementary school teachers and encourage students to take an active role in chemical experiments

There is a need for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills in job markets worldwide and therefore a growing emphasis is being placed on these subjects in schools. This requires the right education in terms of lessons for students and also training for teachers. Associate Professor Masatsugu Taneda, Department of Science Education, Osaka Kyoiku University, is interested in how proper training could equip teachers without STEM backgrounds with the skills they need to enhance the education they are providing to students. He is developing quality education materials to assist teachers and inspire students. Drawing on his background in chemistry, Taneda is focusing on chemistry experiments but the project has scope to be rolled out to other STEM subjects. In one study, he developed labware and digital teaching materials for on-demand chemistry experiments that can be carried out at home. This enhances accessibility and flexibility for students while also improving standardisation of education. The digital teaching materials have been tested by student teachers affiliated with Osaka Kyoiku University who were given a lab kit containing the materials needed for the experiments. Given that teachers in Japan often don’t have sufficient time to source new teaching materials, this enables teachers to focus on their role as education facilitators, while practical content can be prepared by STEM professionals. Taneda developed the toolkit in collaboration with Kenis Corporation. The kits were evaluated for safety and content and then rolled out to university students not majoring in scientific fields so that they could be evaluated in the context of no scientific background.