Progress toward the Construction of an International Web-based Educational System Featuring an Improved "SimRiver" for the Understanding of River Environments

Abstract

The United Nations has designated water sanitation and safety as one of millennium goals and has emphasized the role of international cooperative efforts in achieving this goal. Promoting awareness to the nations about riverine environments is one approach to this goal and science education has the potential to actualize it. “SimRiver,” a program simulator that uses diatoms to enhance the understanding of the relationship between human activity and water quality, is a useful tool for achieving this aim. While previous studies have indicated the advantages of using SimRiver in classroom activities, these studies also revealed the necessity for bringing about improvements in several areas. Revisions were made in both the software itself and in the lesson plans incorporating the use of software, and the effectiveness of these revisions was assessed via a questionnaire study. The results suggest that classroom activities incorporating both the improved version of SimRiver and the enhanced lesson plans succeed in promoting the awareness of river environments more effectively than the previous ones, and in motivating students to conduct additional independent study. In addition, a multilingual version of SimRiver has currently been developed for international use based on the original Japanese version. Web-based multilingual educational teaching aides composed of a Web-based SimRiver simulator, streaming movies, visual tools and a reporting system for classes using these tools are also being prepared in order to encourage international communication in the spirit of the United Nations’ millennium development goal.