I will say that having TSA Pre-check is very convenient when there are long lines for international flights! Traveling to Japan can be very long, 14 hour direct flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo Haneda airpot, then 2 hours on the Shinkasen Bullet train (average speed of 200 mph!) to Shizuoka-shi.
Shizuoka is an ancient city just southwest of Mount Fuji (Fuji-san) and home to the one of the great Shoguns of Japan , Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa Ieyasu united Japan and his family reigned for 268 years by closing Japan off from the rest of the world until 1868. The reign of the Tokugawa family ended when Commodore Mathew Perry forced Japan to open its market to Western trading with the might of the US Navy in Tokyo harbor.
During my time in Japan, I'll be teaching middle school students in Shizuoka & Mishima, teaching classes at Shizuoka University & Tokoha University for undergraduate and graduate students earning their Secondary Science Teaching licenses and then co-presenting, with faculty from both universities, on at the Ministry of Education in Tokyo on: STEM Education in Owatonna Public Schools as an model of integrated STEM education in the United States.
So during this trip I get to teach STEM lessons in my limited Japanese to students grades 5-9, seniors in college and graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in science education and research, no pressure! It's interesting trying to figure out what to bring with me to teach STEM lessons in Japan, because many of the things that first came to mind would probably get me thrown out of the airport if I tried to bring various electronic gadgets, chemicals or frozen dead things in my carry on luggage.
I do want to share one thing I created to bring with me, a slide I'm going to use to help explain the Engineering process that we use for teaching students during engineering challenges like the cardboard arcade or grade water filters. The process is written in Japanese and I tried to use figures in the diagram that can easily share the concepts and demonstrate gender equity in engineering. The process is circular and follows the path: Define the problem - imagine new solutions - design new products - build the prototypes based on the design - test the new products - come up with new solutions - REPEAT.
Shizuoka is an ancient city just southwest of Mount Fuji (Fuji-san) and home to the one of the great Shoguns of Japan , Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokugawa Ieyasu united Japan and his family reigned for 268 years by closing Japan off from the rest of the world until 1868. The reign of the Tokugawa family ended when Commodore Mathew Perry forced Japan to open its market to Western trading with the might of the US Navy in Tokyo harbor.
During my time in Japan, I'll be teaching middle school students in Shizuoka & Mishima, teaching classes at Shizuoka University & Tokoha University for undergraduate and graduate students earning their Secondary Science Teaching licenses and then co-presenting, with faculty from both universities, on at the Ministry of Education in Tokyo on: STEM Education in Owatonna Public Schools as an model of integrated STEM education in the United States.
So during this trip I get to teach STEM lessons in my limited Japanese to students grades 5-9, seniors in college and graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in science education and research, no pressure! It's interesting trying to figure out what to bring with me to teach STEM lessons in Japan, because many of the things that first came to mind would probably get me thrown out of the airport if I tried to bring various electronic gadgets, chemicals or frozen dead things in my carry on luggage.
I do want to share one thing I created to bring with me, a slide I'm going to use to help explain the Engineering process that we use for teaching students during engineering challenges like the cardboard arcade or grade water filters. The process is written in Japanese and I tried to use figures in the diagram that can easily share the concepts and demonstrate gender equity in engineering. The process is circular and follows the path: Define the problem - imagine new solutions - design new products - build the prototypes based on the design - test the new products - come up with new solutions - REPEAT.