Starry sky to classroom! Changing science education in Japan with the first Ovesea Internet Obserbatory.

2003财年，我们在加纳的Tema中学安装了“第一个”海外互联网观测站，经过两次访问该国：第一次访问（2003年8月），所有谈判都完成了，观测站的位置确定了；实际施工工作在第二次访问期间完成（2003年11月至12月）。2003年12月15日和16日，加纳互联网观测站首次在熊本本市和新和町的小学课堂上使用。加纳的夜空已成功通过互联网观测，通过互联网天文台实时观测夜空将成为天文学教育的一个有用工具。2004财政年度，天文台得到了持续的小改进和一些维护工作，同时在教室中大量使用：这些活动在本道市和新和町的小学、熊本市的一所初中、札幌的一所小学以及熊本大学附属小学、北海道教育大学和千叶大学进行。值得注意的是，学生们对从加纳天文台收到的天体图像和此类活动表现出浓厚的兴趣（我们调查了他们对这些主题的兴趣前后）。2005年2月在熊本大学附属小学开设的这门课程被电视新闻报道，这表明我们的项目正在受到公众的关注。除了课堂使用外，互联网观测站还被用于终身教育、科学博物馆，并在教育计算中心的一次研讨会上进行了演示。这两年在日本天文学会的年会上都有报告。因为要做的事情太多了（观测台的安装和教室的教学），我们无法写一份全面的项目报告。然而，重要的结果已经总结在两篇研究生论文中，所以我们应该很快就能发表论文了。总之，这个项目非常成功，我们相信这个新工具必将开启科学教育的新时代。少

In FY2003, we have installed the "first" oversea Internet Observatory to Tema Secondary School, Ghana, after 2 times of visits to that country : during the first visit(August 2003), all the negotiations were done and the observatory site was determined ; and actual construction work was done during the second visit(November through December 2003). Ghana Internet Observatory was used at class at elementary schools in Hondo-shi and Shinwa-machi, Kumamoto, for the first time(15 and 16 December 2003). Night sky of Ghana was successfully viewed via the Internet and it was promising that real-time viewing of night sky with the Internet Observatory would become a useful tool for astronomy education.In FY2004, the observatory has received continuous minor improvements and some maintenance works, while it has been used intensively at classrooms : such activities took place at elementary schools in Hondo-shi and Shinwa-machi, a junior high school in Kumamoto-shi, an elementary school in Sapporo- … More shi, and elementary schools attached to Kumamoto University, Hokkaido University of Education, and Chiba University. It is noteworthy that students showed strong interests in images of heavenly bodies received from Ghana Observatory and in such activities(we have surveyed before and after how they are interested in the subjects). The class at the elementary school attached to Kumamoto University(February 2005) was reported on a TV news, indicating our project is now getting public attentions.In addition to the classroom uses, the Internet Observatory was utilized in Life-long Education, at a Science Museum, and demonstrated at a symposium of Center for Educational Computing. Reports were made in both years at the annual meetings of Astronomical Society of Japan.As there have been so many things to do(installation of observatory and teaching at classrooms), we were not able to write up a comprehensive report of the project. However, important results have been summarized in two graduate theses so that we should soon be able to publish papers. To summarize, the project has been so successful and this new tool surely will open a new era in science education, we believe. Less