Exploring Project-Based Learning in Kosen Institutions: A Predictive Approach to Agricultural Production

Kosen is an educational institution that provides professional engineering education for those aged 15 to 22. Kosen is a unique educational system in Japan and has a reputation for nurturing engineers that have the capacity to be useful in society. In Kosen, it is difficult to educate the hand-on system development capabilities required by society at regular classes, because of the constraint of class hours. Teachers can explain the features of the software development method, and the development process, etc. However, the lecture can only convert knowledge. It is difficult for students who have not experienced software development to master the abilities required for actual system development. In addition, it is difficult to develop leadership skills, the ability to listen to the user's voice, and the ability to learn by oneself. To solve these problems and bring out the self-initiative, Kosen has many types of extracurricular education systems. In this paper, we will explain the regional collaboration education at the International College of Technology, which is one of Kosen. We educate students through the system development method using project activity of the tomato production management system in collaboration with Komatsu City JA. By experiencing the development of the tomato production management system, students were able to master the system development method. By making use of knowledge and skills through project activities, system development along with regional collaboration enabled us to acquire attitudes such as independent learning, and listening to the opinions of users. It can be said that the proposed method is effective for nurturing the abilities required in society. 1 INTRODUCTION Kosen is a five-year (or seven-year) education institution in which one can be enrolled after graduating from junior high school [1, 2] (Figure 1). Kosen is a unique educational system in Japan and has a reputation for nurturing engineers. The Kosen curriculum allows students to study both general subjects and specialized subjects in a wellbalanced manner. The goal is to acquire the rich academic and systematic expertise necessary for engineers. Kosen focuses on technical education that leads directly to employment. Its strength is that it is possible to construct an educational curriculum that can consistently train students for the five (or seven) years important for human development between the ages of 15 and 22 (or 24), including the major subjects in engineering. In Japan, engineering education ordinarily starts when students enter university if they choose to go to university after graduation from high school. In the case of the information field, programming that is equivalent to addition and subtraction in mathematics is content that can be acquired in elementary schools, but it takes time to learn. In the case of Kosen, students can receive an engineering education from the age of first-grade high school students, so by first-year university, students have all the basics. This is one advantage of Kosen education. As a self-employed spirit developed in dormitory life and thorough technical education from the age of 15, Kosen produces many entrepreneurs in Japan, which is said to have few entrepreneurs. Fig. 1. Institutional relationship between Kosen and high school/university The International College of Technology is one of the Kosen institutions. In Kosen education, it is difficult to teach the system development method in regular classes. Although it is possible to explain the types and features of software development methods, development processes, etc., the problem is that students who have not had experience in system development have only acquired knowledge and information. To solve this problem, students created the tomato production management system in cooperation with Komatsu City JA (an agricultural cooperative) as extracurricular education. In this paper, we report the whole image of education by regional collaboration and its results. By experiencing the development of the tomato production management system, students were able to master the system development method. Students were also able to acquire practical system development methods. As the 4th and 5th graders of Kosen have been receiving specialized education for three years or more, they have sufficient "knowledge" and "skills." However, by making use of knowledge and skills through project activities, the system development with the regional collaboration enabled us to acquire attitudes, such as independent learning, and listening to the opinions of users. It can be said that the proposed method is effective for nurturing the abilities required in society. 2 INFORMATION ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN KOSEN In Japan's high school systems, engineering education is not taught. In general, students who have graduated from high school usually receive engineering education after entering the university. On the other hand, Kosen is an integrated high school and university, where students receive engineering education from the age of 15. Moreover, the number of classes per week is greater than those offered in university. As far as engineering is concerned, Kosen can be said to be an environment where students can learn more extensive knowledge and skills than in university. In Kosen, the basic contents of information engineering can be studied in classes. However, these are only some of the capabilities needed in society. There is a need for ability education that can transform knowledge into wisdom, and thereby help improve society. To achieve these aims, the following contests were conducted. Kosen Robocon [3] Kosen Programming Contest [4] Kosen English Presentation Contest [5] In addition, education through regional collaboration is conducted. By participating in the contests and the regional collaboration, students can learn skills that are difficult to learn in classes. The major difference between the company's work and the schooling is whether answers are available or not. In society, one has to set one's own goals while thinking about what the answer is and clarifying the answer. Each type of contest and the regional collaborative education are places to practice in which one sets one's own goals while thinking about what the answer is. Kosen focuses on educating students in three elements: "knowledge," "skills," and "attitudes," as these are the abilities that companies demand from employees(Fugure 2). "Knowledge" is a theoretical idea that addresses whether it is possible to explain something in a well-documented, rational way. "Skill" is a practical matter in contrast to theory, and can be acquired by gaining experience. "Attitude" is an orientation toward things, such as attitudes toward learning, goal setting, and motivation. Not only "knowledge and skill" but also "attitudes" are used to discover problems by oneself, to search for solutions, and to identify the search for the abilities, such as thinking, judgment, and expressive power that are required. There is also a need for an attitude toward working with diverse people with a sense of independence. Fig. 2. Three factors that bring out the ability In Kosen, knowledge and skills education that place the importance on experimentation and practice are carried out. In contrast, education that only strengthens the ability to set goals and act on one's own is less substantial. To address this problem, Kosen is carrying out the project activities through the regional collaboration education and the contests mentioned above. 3 POSITIONING OF PROJECT ONE! Project One! is the project of the regional collaboration education in the International College of Technology; it was part of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Local Knowledge Base Development Project (COC Business)" [6]. The project was launched by students as a project to develop a rice growth management system with the goal of increasing the efficiency of agriculture by the power of ICT, and it has been working continuously with cooperation of local farmers [7]. The major goals of Project One! are to acquire the following abilities. A) Awareness/Understanding to respond to social change B) Ability to change one's interest and ability to take action C) Mental and behavioral power to fully utilize one's own resources and solve social address issues Society is constantly changing. In the information processing field, these changes are especially remarkable. We believe it is important to foster the ability to respond flexibly to change, create new value, and lead society in a more positive direction. We believe that we should actively tackle social problems and focus on developing human resources that can improve society. Under this philosophy, we are working on the development of a regional innovation system through regional collaboration as an extracurricular activity. Another purpose of the project is to foster software development capability by developing an ICT system for agricultural support. We aim to improve the students' skills as information processing engineers by teaching them how to design a system while creating a system. 5 TOMATO PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 5.1 Clarification of the problem Komatsu City JA installs technology, such as temperature and humidity sensors, in the tomato green houses of farms that belong to it, and utilizes cloud services that automatically collect environmental data (temperature, humidity). By being able to confirm the numerical value of the work, which formerly depended on experience and intuition, the intention is to utilize improvements in the production process, challenge new agricultural techniques and productivity improvements, and train new talent. The challenge by the International College of Technology was a part of this; the quantity of tomatoes produced in the entire city was grasped, and the goals identified were to 'Eliminate the time that cannot be shipped' and 'Eliminate the rush of shipments'. The activity was to be undertaken by the 4th and 5th grades of the International College of Technology, and the activity was carried out after school and during holidays. Figure 3 shows the configuration of project members involved. In the problem-solving process, the flow of problem-solving and improvement of activities were used. First, students identified and clarified problems, and created, selected, and implemented ideas. We discussed the details of the system with the tomato farmers in Komatsu City and Komatsu City JA. This was repeated many times, and their ideas were integrated into the process. Fig. 3. Member structure of tomato production management project To manage tomato production, it is necessary to predict tomato growth based on the acquired environmental data. In addition, it is necessary to forecast environmental data to estimate production volume. It is also important that Komatsu City JA can confirm the production forecast value of all farmers. Students summarized these system concepts, reported them to Komatsu City JA, discussed them, and examined the system concepts and what they should be. In addition, students also examined whether the functions needed to realize the system could be realized. When the functions were clarified, students Iisted what was necessary to create a tomato production management system. Komatsu City farmers should be able to input the necessary data, and Komatsu City JA should be able to confirm the estimated tomato production by using the system. When the system was completed, it was time the farmers should input the data, but a problem occurred. Farmers were busy and it was difficult to enter the necessary data on the website's homepage. After all, Komatsu City JA collected and entered the data from farmers individually. This failure was however useful as a system development experience. Although expert knowledge of students is sufficient for system development, the system that was completed at the beginning was difficult to use, because there was no experience in the system development process that assumed it could actually be utilized. Moreover, recognition of the importance of preparing the system to make it easy to use was low; it was also observed that only a technologically elaborate system was prepared. In class, it became clear that the trade-off between technology and usability was difficult to learn. We think students were able to learn the kind of design that is necessary to actually use the technology by working together with the Komatsu City JA. It was not simple, but students found that by being faced with the attitude that customers really wanted to utilize the technology, and by discussing this, their ideas changed. 5.2 Demonstration experiment by tomato production management system The project was adopted as a measure to improve agricultural profitability in the fiscal year 2016, and a demonstration experiment was conducted jointly with Komatsu City JA and the Komatsu City tomato farmers from the spring of 2018. To make the project successful, students were required to have skills without learning experiences, such as the ability to develop multiple programs without bugs according to a schedule, and the ability to properly listen to user requests and to change specifications. The problem was that the activity time was limited because the International College of Technology was working alone. As there are classes from 8:30 to 5:00, it was not possible for students to engage with the activity frequently. Therefore, the time to listen to users' opinions was limited, and it was very difficult to fix the specifications. Fig. 4. Initial input screen Figure 4 shows the input screen of the necessary information on the system constructed. The most difficult part of this activity was the creation of the input screen. It is easy to make it possible to enter the necessary information, but whether it is easy for the farmer to enter or manage it is another matter; whether it is easy to manage should be the result of testing it numerous times. However, it was difficult to match the schedule of the farmers and the schedule of the students, and we felt constrained by time. Fig. 5. Green house internal temperature prediction flow In the tomato production management system, the temperature in the green house after about one month is predicted by machine learning, and the production quantity is predicted using the predicted temperature (Figure 5). It was possible to construct the system using techniques such as machine learning without any problems, because this had already been learned. Figure 6 shows the predicted production volume and the production volume, which shows that the trend is correct. Fig. 6. Production volume and prediction volume 6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Kosen focuses on educating students in three elements: "knowledge," "skills," and "attitudes," as these are the abilities that companies demand from employees. Therefore, the results of the activities of developing the system for predicting tomato production are summarized below from this point of view. ● Knowledge - Students already learned in regular classes Skill - Students learned while creating the system Attitude - Students take the initiative in participating in extracurricular activities Students were able to develop the system for predicting tomato production using the knowledge learned in the International College of Technology. Knowledge in system development was sufficient as students have received specialized education for more than three years. On the other hand, students did not have knowledge about the growth of tomato, they learned while getting the help of JA Komatsu and Komatsu farmers. Through this activity students were able to gain new knowledge. Students did not have enough skills because students had little experience in system development, but students gained more necessary skills while creating a system utilizing the skills they hold. We think that students have gained enough skills since they were able to build the system. Because of the extracurricular activities, students voluntarily found free time and developed the system. Students took the initiative in developing a system by discussing with the community. From these things, sufficient growth was confirmed for "knowledge," "skills," and "attitudes". Students were able to transform knowledge into wisdom through the system's development. Moreover, the system that was created was useful for the sale of Komatsu City's tomatoes, and thus an activity which was useful to society was undertaken. In addition, the students themselves presented the results of their activities at international conferences [8] (see Figure 7). Thus, the major goals of the project activity were achieved. Given that a system that could actually utilize the knowledge acquired in class was constructed by students utilizing their spare time after school, we judged that they had acquired the abilities to fully utilize their own resources to develop their mental and behavioral powers. Fig. 7. Presentation at an international conference Through regional collaboration education, the students actually experienced software development, learned how to use the knowledge acquired in class in actual development sites, and eventually learned the development style that is being practiced in the company. In the proposed method, the software development was carried out throughout the project, and students were required to complete the development with limited resources. The project members worked together with Komatsu City JA and Komatsu farmers to make prototypes that had actual development deadlines. Students improved their abilities to set goals and act on their own. The significance of conducting a regional cooperation education in Kosen is very promising. Through the regional collaboration education, students comprehensively learn the system's development and the abilities required by a system engineer. As the program is an extracurricular activity, students do not have to worry about small mistakes, and have the advantage of being able to spend time trying different things and learning through trial and error. In the external and internal design phases, both the external and internal designs were repeated many times to complete the interface between modules. Such a learning method is regarded as difficult in regular lessons given time constraints. However, for Kosen students who have knowledge and skills but do not have the attitudes necessary to learn by themselves or the experience of working in a group, we think that the process of repeated failure and growth is important. The above points also suggest that the proposed method is effective for system development. 7 CONCLUSION Students experienced the development of tomato production management system with the cooperation of Komatsu City JA and Komatsu City tomato farmers, and thereby learn the system development method. In addition, they were able to acquire practical system development practices that could not be obtained through lectures alone. As students in 4th and 5th grade technical colleges have received over three years of specialized education, they have shown they have adequate knowledge and skills. By carrying out project development using these knowledge and skills, and by conducting system development in the regional collaboration, the students were able to acquire appropriate attitudes, such as an orientation to independent learning and willingness to listen to the opinions of users. It is clear that the proposed method is very effective for fostering the skills required in society. REFERENCES Ministry of Education About Kosen, http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/koutou/kousen/index.htm. Independent administrative institution Kosen Organization, http://www.kosen- k.go.jp/joho_kokusai/kaigaitenkai.html. Kosen Robocon, http://www.official-robocon.com/kosen/. Kosen Programming Contest, http://www.procon.gr.jp/. Kosen English Presentation Contest, http://cocet.org/precon/2018/index.html. University COC(Center of Community)project, http://www.mext.go. jp/a_menu/koutou/kaikaku/coc/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2014/01/22/1342759_02 . pdf. Mikiko Sode Tanaka, Keiko Matsumoto, Takao Ito (2016), "New ICT Education Collaborating with Regional Agricultural Corporation," SEFI Annual Conference 2016. Koki Yamamoto, Kazuhiro Seida, Kaito Hayashi, Junna Nishiyama, Daishi Suzuki, Mikiko Sode Tanaka (2018), "Predicting System of Harvest Time and Yield of Tomatoes," 2018 IEEE 7th Global Conference on Consumer Electronics .