(Ms. Hilda explains National Science Centre.)

My mission here in Zambia at National Science Centre is to develop leaning materials and apparatus of science and technology for basic school level.

Provide resources in improving science and technology learning materials to basic and secondary school teachers through seminars and workshops.

I am a second senior volunteer.  My predecessor introduced many new experiments they are really familiar and popular in Japan. So I also intend to introduce educational materials and experiments as much as possible.

I had been teaching science at Japanese private middle schoolｓ and high schools before I came to Zambia in April 2004.

I was just an ordinary class room teacher I taught science especially biology.  I am not good at maths and technology.

But here in Zambia I must check every field of science in order to provide low cost and effective science materials.

My motto is making educational materials as locally available as possible.

As I already have said my mission here in Zambia, I would like to introduce locally available educational materials and experiments through designing of them and workshop.

Today I have some samples of educational materials especially suitable for radio program.

This is an earphone.  I removed plastic which faces external ear.  I can use this earphone as a pickup.  It means a kind of microphone.  I put this pickup to my left chest and record the sound it was able to pick up.

Here you can hear the sound.

(Click “heart beat”)

This pick up costs about 10,000 Kwacha.

I also used this pickup in order to collect the sound of a pair of string phones.

My colleague Josephine Nawa spoke through the phone.  (Click “string phone”)

This was traditional string phone made with plastic string and paper tubes and sheets of plastic.

Next sound is from different string phone.  The string is made with plastic bottle.  I cut a plastic bottle helically then made coil like string.

Please hear the sound.

(Click “plastic line”)

Can you hear the difference?  I think through these experiments children can consider why the difference of transmission has been caused.  String phone is really simple and low cost educational materials.  I think this is one of a good sample.  But I am sorry I should have made the difference bigger.

Next sample is a simple buzzer.  I made this sample with our products named “induction coil” and few wood works.  I used a used saw as a spring and a bar.  As you can hear the sound of this buzzer is not good.  But my purpose of this sample is not to make good sound.  This one is really bigger than actual electric buzzers so children can realize how buzzer works through just seeing this sample.

Make bigger samples is another motto of my work.  I believe bigger and stronger materials are really effective in Zambian schools.

Next sample is a small music box worked by hand.

The music of this music box is “If you wish upon a star”.

Can you hear the sound of this music box?

(Rotate the handle of music box near the microphone)

I am sorry the sound was really small.  I thought audience could not catch the sound.

Then I will try again with a wooden box.  I have a wooden box 40 by 30 by 30 cm big.

I will push the music box in the bottom of this box.

(Rotate the handle again)

This is a sample of resonance.  It is really same as the box of music instrument such as a violin, a guitar and a piano.  You also check the difference of resonance using metal block, glass block and so on.

The last sample is sound from ZNBC TV.  I recorded this sound April 2nd before National anthem broadcasted.

 (Click “988HZ”)

Next, I am going make different sound which has really similar wave length and frequency but not same ones.

(Click 988HZ and 982HZ)

Mixture of two different sounds makes the wave of the sound bigger and smaller so you can hear new vibration of sound.

Workshop

Workshops and Seminars are also my important mission in Zambia, especially for basic school teacher far from Lusaka.  I visited Mongu, Mpongwe, Mumbwa, and Kabwe in order to attend workshops.  Mongu workshop was held by National Science Centre and other workshops were held by JOCV junior volunteers and their counter parts.

I really enjoyed introducing science experiments and teachers who attended the workshops also enjoyed I believe.

Encouraging teachers far from capital city is really important in order to raise the educational standard of Zambia.

I also made web site of National Science Centre.  So audience can access our information through internet.  I uploaded my predecessor’s experiments and mine already.

School day of Japanese Children

One of the differences of daily school life of Japanese children at school between Zambia is School lunch.

Most of basic schools in Japan provide school lunch every day.

Children can enjoy different menu every day.

After World War II in 1954 school lunch started.

In those days most of Japanese people suffered from shortage of food. Having lunch at school every day made children and their parent really happy.

Another difference of school system is free textbook system.  Government distributes to whole basic school children their textbook free.  This system is really effective to keep 100 % school attendance in Japan.

But from the point of parents, education is really expensive.  In order to give good education and extra curricular experiences to their children, parents use fortune.  Such as swimming school, piano lesson, dance lesson, foreign language school, calligraphy school, calculation school, and of course traditional martial arts exercises.

Moreover most of higher basic school children must go to after school schools called JUKU in order to pass the entrance examination of secondary school.

Because of high expenditures on education Japanese people are not able to afford many children.  Have few children and grow them intelligent is Japanese style.