The Japan Science and Technology Agency has been providing a special program (designated as SPP; the science partnership project) during these five years that link science education between high schools and universities. Based on this program, we performed laboratory courses from 2008 to 2010 to junior students in Asashikawa city in Hokkaido. We also conducted an inquiry survey in the form of a questionnaire to examine whether or not the program maximize educational effects and also meet their requirements. As we had preliminary data derived from the course performed in 2008, we have modified several points to enhance students' motivation in the way it has been carried out in both 2009 and 2010. Of these are to have schooling for students to decide
experimental theses by themselves, to expand the role of TA for facilitating communication among students, TA and teachers, to use powerful multimedia tools to create complex documents including sound, graphics and animation, and so on. As expected, the laboratory courses in 2010 tuned out to be much more effective than those in 2008 and 2009 in terms of their having real desires to learn science and other subjects in their high school days and preparing for their future. One unexpected secondary effect is that as for TA and young staff members at the university, this teaching experience in this educational practice of SPP became big motivators to enhance their own learning and studies as well. The analyzed data therefore suggest that through this kind of education practice SPP positively fulfill some roles to halt the trend that students in Japan are moving away from the sciences, although there are still some points needed to make this program fit more to high school students.
