5th Eco School at the Urahoro Test Site: Learning About the Environment in a Natural Setting

On August 4, Hitachi Construction Machinery hosted the fifth Eco School at the Urahoro Test Site. This “school” is a part of the Youth Leaders’ Training Seminar, which is sponsored by both the Urahoro Board of Education and the Urahoro Children’s Association Liaison Council. Elementary school children from the Urahoro school district participated in this year’s program.

Lectures were given during the environment class on global environmental issues, and the role of hydraulic excavators and environmental consciousness. The class was then moved outdoors where the students observed, did a ride-along on, and learned how to operate an actual hydraulic excavator under the guidance of an employee assisting in teaching the class. The students experienced for themselves what the machinery does and felt its power first hand.

In addition, as a part of their environmental studies in the natural setting of the test site, students observed aquatic insect in and around the regulated reservoir. Last lesson of the day was on food education. The students listened to a talk on food and the global environment while having lunch.

We believe that learning about the purpose of hydraulic excavators and about the surrounding environment at the Eco School, which is held in the natural setting of the Urahoro Test Site, likely gave these elementary school students a deeper interest in the global environment and a greater recognition of the appeal of Urahoro.