Seiji Moriya Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education, Yamagata University. Born 1957.Specializing in mathematics education .The author of numerous books, among them? Condensed Diagrams and Enlarged Diagrams and Personal Computer Sports Land (Iwasaki shoten publ.).
Kenichi Okuyama Instructor at the Elementary School Attached to the Faculty of Education at Ya magata University. Born in Yamagata in 1958. Author of Building a `Computer Amusement Park' on your Computer (Iwasaki shoten publ.).
Through CCV (computer, communication, visual) education systems, a system has been developed for distance learning between remote sites which is well-suited to circumstance prevalent in Japan. In a previous article, we reported on lessons conducted in September and October on "making embroidered pictures." In this article, we describe lessons conducted during the same period between first-grade classes on "making ornaments."
Normally in arithmetic education, first-graders are guided in making solid objects consisting solely of a surface covering, such as a paper clay figure, in the curricula dealing with creating three-dimensional objects. The surface would be flat, and would generally be based on rectangles, circles or other basic shapes; examples include right-angled parallelepipeds, angled columns, and cylinders. However, most of the objects children meet with each day-people, animals, vegetables and fruits-are solid, rather than hollow, object, and their surfaces are curved rather than flat.
We therefore shall refer to objects bounded by curved surfaces and which are not hollow as curved-surface objects. It seems that first-graders are in need of instruction in curved-surface objects.
Curved-surface objects may be either compound objects which can be regarded as composed of a number of solid objects, as in the cases of people and animals, or may be simple curved-surface objects which are bounded by a single curved-surface, uh as radishes and pears. First-graders are at the stage at which, in order to create a compound curved-surface objects from clay, they first form the shape of the entire object and then draw out the separate components, rather than combining parts to form the whole. Where curved surfaces are concerned alsoC they have reached the stage at which they form the surface with attention paid to the curving(hereafter the "curvature") of each aria, in addition to attending to overall protrusion and depressions.
In the distance learning sessions described here, children studied curved surfaces and compound curved-surface objects through molding activities using papier-mache, and these studies were put to use in more general educational areas.
After self-assertive first-graders in remote locations have completed their own studies, they may exchange studies with the remote class and so learn about the different nature of the other class's studies (making figures "animals in motion or making purposeful actions "and "athletes"). By this means, it was reasoned, the quality of the lesson may be greatly improved, and so teaching materials of a more comprehensive or general nature were devised.
In the actual execution, forty first-grade students at an elementary school attached to Yamanashi University (hereafter simply "Yamanashi") and forty first-graders at an elementary school attached to Yamagata University ("Yamagata") participated in lessons conducted using a distance learning system.
At Yamanashi, the children made masks with various expressions. First paper clay was formed into an elliptical shape, and material was added to form the nose and forehead, the two most salient protrusions. The cheeks were also dawn out, and the boundary with the nose was depressed. When the shape was completed, the masks were dried for three days. After drying, rice paper and newspaper cut into squares 3cm on a side were pasted onto the paper clay, to form the mask. Rice paper was applied three times to the surface of the figure, so that surface became white and smooth. After again drying for three days, the paper clay was removed; then paint was used to color the figure. This was the first time for the first-graders to use both paper clay and paint, and so detailed instructions had to be given repeatedly. Once the paint had dried, instructor Furuya sprayed the masks with varnish to add luster.
At Yamagata, animal figures were created with emphasis on overall protrusions and depressions. The children initially tried using oil clay to form the animals they wanted to make. However, four-legged animals were not supported by the legs when formed from oil clay, or tended to be too thick. The children then watched an animation on the skeleton of a horse prepared using the CCV educational system. It was found that the body is supported by the skeleton, and so a core material become necessary. Instructor Hidaka provided the children with core materials prepared for the animals, and the core material was used to define the skeleton, to which pieces of paper clay were added. From lumps of the paper clay, the legs and neck were drawn out, forming the overall shape. After the paper clay had dried, paint was used to color the figures just as in Yamanashi, and varnish was applied to add luster.
Photo1: Applying paint to the dried paper clay(taken at Yamagata)
First interactive lesson (Sept.26) Yamanashi gave a report on making masks. The process used to make papier mache masks from paper clay was described. The children confidently presented their own creation to their friends in Yamagata. To investigate the size of the protrusions in the forehead and cheeks, since the completed mask cannot be split in two to make direct measurements, instead an animation was used to place circles against mask cross-sections.
The Yamagata children were shown how to express differences in the amount of protrusion in terms of the different size circles that fit the protrusion. The Yamagata children also took pride in the animal figures that they showed to their Yamanashi classmates. They then described the process of creation, and explained not only the use of paper clay, but the way core material was contained inside. The Yamanashi children were shown an animation of "a horse in three dimensions", enabling them to see a horse's skeleton in the same way as if one were using X-rays to view the bones in one's own body. The animation was provided with buttons which, when clicked, would allow one to move the legs and the neck with the mouse, to study the manner in which the joints move; the Yamanashi children actually sat before the computer and tried this. When in the animation the bones appeared onscreen, the Yamanashi children became excited, shouting "bones, they're bones!" The impact of the animation stimulated the children's interest in the creation of ornaments using core materials, something they had not before learned about. The Yamagata children likewise had not previously tried creating figures of animals in motion, and so looked forward eagerly to the challenge of making such figures.
The children thus agreed to try creating new works, drawing on the expressions obtained from the masks of the Yamanashi class and the fact discovered by the Yamagata class that overall protrusions and depressions arise from the skeleton. The Yamagata children would create animal figures in motion, with the aim of creating a zoo including the animal figures already made. The Yamanashi class would recall the Atlanta Olympics in creating sports figures adopting the expressions found in the masks. It was also agreed that in the next interactive lesson the children would convey the figures they had made through gestures, and with this, the day's interactive lesson was brought to an end.
The Yamagata children made gestures corresponding to the animal figures they planned to create, and they received advice on how to improve them from their Yamanashi friends(Photo2). An animation combined with video clips was viewed to learn more about how actual animals move, and 3D images of the animals were viewed from various angles, to revise their views of the curvature, arches and depressions in the animals' bodies. The features of animals obtained from the animation and from the comments of the Yamanashi children were considered in revising their gestures, and the children discussed what had been improved. Core materials were provided to the Yamanashi children also, and they too tried using gestures to express the features of the movement of sports athletes. At this point communication between the classes was interrupted, and both classes shaped core material to try and from frameworks expressing the features of the figures they were to create.
Photo2:"See,This is what a dove looks like" taken at Yamagata
However, because the Yamanashi children in their first experience with the core material were not able to satisfactorily represent the human skeleton, they wanted to ask their Yamagata classmates for advise, and so communication was resumed. The motions of a baseball player both fully clothed and in skeletal form were viewed in another animation, and the motion of the bones was confirmed. Communication was again interrupted, and the children tired shaping the core material.
After five minutes communication was again resumed, and curving requiring some care in the course of fleshing out the figures with paper clay was noted in an animation, on "the saddle of a horse." Bending and curvature were studied in a game format. By choosing a saddle which is just right in terms of the depression along the line running down the horse's spine, and the protrusion along the line running across the horse's back, the children studied the different curves in the two directions on the horse's back. After agreeing to complete their respective works by the time of the next interactive lesson, communication was ended.
Photo4:A soccer player
Both the Yamanashi and Yamagata classes introduced their new works. The Yamanashi children reported what they had noticed in the course of creating their sports figures; the Yamagata children described important points of their work on animal figures. Both types of work attempted to capture motion, and the children were conscious of the joints of the figures as well as the depressions and bending of the figures as a whole(photo 4). More of the Yamagata works were of sea lions, birds and animals other than the horses and cheetahs of the previous lesson, with different protrusions and curve
After the works were displayed, the children viewed handcrafts and sculptures on display in museums. Actual handcrafted ornaments were captured using a shoga camera, and the overall protrusions, depressions and other features of the items were noted(Photo 5).
Photo 5:A Yamanashi child reporting what he has discovered about the courves in a handcrafted item(telconferending image taken at Yamagata)
Based on the results of surveys before and after the lessons, it appears that the present lessons were effective in enabling the pupils to grasp the nature of curved surfaces, and that the lessons contributed to their understanding of curved-surface objects. The lessons focused on creating works for children at an age at which they are prone to creative expression. For first-graders unable to quantify curves as "having a curvature equal to a circle of radius ~~cm," having them refer to a curve as large, or to a protrusion as large, or express differences in curvature in words may have resulted in some confusion in how words are used.
On the other hand, the way in which the classes learned from each other's works and studies in the two interactive lessons and then applied those results in new works with multiple benefits, could only have been achieved through distance learning. In viewing works of art also, the lessons showed evidence of the children's gradually acquiring the ability to appreciate art.
In these distance learning sessions, the amount of animation used as lesson material was greater than ever before. The considerable effect of the animation material can be judged from the difference in the proportion of correct answers appearing in the surveys before and after the lesson to questions of the curvature of the "horse's saddle." The game-like activities to mount s saddle on a three- dimensional figure generated as a computer graphic suggests that the curves in the horse-image used were vividly impressed in the mind of the children. In addition, the numerous animation works incorporated many video clips, which in places were transformed into three-dimensional images. The chances to observe such images in the course of the interactive sessions contributed greatly to maintain and simulate the children's interest. The animations also proved highly useful as audio-visual teaching materials.
According to the records relating to the lessons kept by Mr.Furuya, while planning required 14 hours, the actual execution, including time spent in communication, was some 33 hours. Lessons extending over long periods of time are by their nature comprehensive, but it should be possible to reduce the number of times children create works and otherwise modify parameters, enabling ordinary implementation.
This concludes the second-stage CCV educational system project; next the third stage will commence. In the third stage, plans call for interactive lessons will German students and for implementation in public schools. We shall soon be engaged in preparations for these events. We hope the reader will remember and look forward to our reports on execution of the third-stage project.
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