Contributing to Society with Education Solutions
Casio’s education solutions statement is “Boost your curiosity.” Curiosity is the starting point for learning. Curiosity generates interest. Casio believes that these are important elements that enrich people’s lives. Based on this statement, Casio is developing and supplying education tools that meet the needs of the classroom and support modern education.
GAKUHAN Activities — Supporting Math Education with Scientific Calculators
Casio supplies scientific calculators for use in education settings in some 100 countries and regions worldwide. The mission is not just to supply calculators, but to support teachers and students, who are the end users in education settings. In addition to fostering human resources who are needed by the governments of these countries, we hope to help children realize their dreams of attending university and becoming a doctor, engineer, or whatever else they want to be.
In Japan, scientific calculators are largely seen as tools for university students in science and mathematics, whereas many countries incorporate scientific calculators into their junior and senior high school education. In the U.S., Europe, Australia, and other countries, scientific calculators are used by nearly all students at those earlier levels. Their use is being driven by changes in mathematics education around the world. There is growing recognition that the power of technology is essential to the study of statistics and programming in an IT-driven world. For example, leveraging technology to perform complex calculations enables a greater focus on nurturing problem-solving and thinking skills.
It is one thing to purchase a scientific calculator, but teachers and students need to know how to use scientific calculators properly for classes and exams. For more than 30 years, Casio has been actively supporting teachers and students around the world with its GAKUHAN activities. In addition to providing training and teaching materials for educators, Casio is implementing a pilot project aimed at improving academic skills, as a way to support better education and build optimal learning environments.
Anchoring these activities is Casio product development, which provides customization according to government course guidelines, languages, and curricula in each region. With the aim of developing true educational tools that support learning, Casio engineers visit schools and join classes to grasp the needs in education settings, which are reflected in the product specifications. In this way, Casio develops localized models that are tailored to national and regional requirements, currently offering 70 models in 19 regions.* Casio can customize scientific calculators in short cycles to rapidly reflect the needs of education settings, utilizing large-scale integration (LSI) and automated assembly suited for high-mix low-volume production.
GAKUHAN activities also facilitate product development that reflects the needs of education settings and support learning environments that foster thinking skills. In Europe and the U.S., students and teachers already know how to operate scientific calculators, and in recent years the axis has begun to shift to emerging economies including ASEAN countries.
* Scientific calculators with natural display only
“Casio Teacher Training System” for people who teach in countries around the world
Casio is engaged in initiatives around the world to advance curricular reforms focusing on mathematics and science education, which are fundamental to technology. One of the things that support these efforts is Casio’s teacher training. Casio provides comprehensive support, from dispatching “master trainers” (teachers working with Casio), who are responsible for developing regional trainers, to ensuring that every teacher is able to provide classes that use scientific calculators.
Casio Essential Materials: Original teaching materials that support mathematics classes that use scientific calculators
The status of usage of scientific calculators varies by country and region. In order to improve situations where scientific calculators have never been used before, where usage was subject to restrictions, and where usage was not appropriate, Casio developed original teaching materials.
These materials encompass all teaching modules for higher secondary level mathematics, and support the introduction and usage of scientific calculators. When students are able to achieve a suitable and sufficient understanding and usage of scientific calculators, they are able to deepen their understanding of and interest in mathematics.
As for teachers, they are able to learn the required usage of scientific calculators for the next lesson as supplemental materials.
Casio is engaged in promoting projects linked to the future of learners through coordination with national and regional governments
G2G EDU-Port Japan
Mathematics education business in Indonesia and Thailand selected as a project by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
G2G EDU-Port Japan is a project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology that promotes the development of Japan-style education outside Japan. Casio is running a program in Indonesia and Thailand on “inquiry-based mathematics”. We support the expansion and establishment of these practices. Aiming to improve mathematics education through classroom development, we are considering support for other countries as well.
Case 1: Indonesia
In Indonesia, based on the national policy of developing human resources to increase international competitiveness, Casio is engaged in educational reforms aimed at increasing capabilities centered around Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), such as analysis, evaluation, and imagination. Institutions related to the Ministry of Education have a great interest in the benefits of and educational activities related to Casio’s scientific calculators. We have begun supporting classes for first-year high school students in the state of Jakarta, where a new curriculum will be implemented in 2024.
Case 2: Thailand
Casio held discussions with organizations related to the Ministry of Education of Thailand on the use of scientific calculators, with an eye on addressing disparities in academic ability between cities and countryside regions. With this information in mind, Casio conducted a pilot class with first-year high school students. In subsequent testing, classes that engaged in inquiry-based classes that used scientific calculators had higher instances of correct answers given compared to classes that were taught using more traditional methods, without the use of scientific calculators. Casio was able to verify the effectiveness of its scientific calculators.
Effectiveness assessment of scientific calculators at a model school in the state of Lagos, Nigeria
In coordination with the Lagos State Ministry of Education, Casio engaged in a project to assess the effectiveness of scientific calculators as they related to inquiry-based learning. Teaching materials were provided to six model schools, with Casio implementing teacher training and classes that use the scientific calculators. The results of a survey of the benefits were reported to the Ministry of Education.
These reports were presented at ”The Lagos Education Conference”, in which many education-related personnel participated, including the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, the Senior Deputy Registrar of the West Africa Examination Council, and the Commissioner of the Lagos State Ministry of Education.
Our activities were commended by the Commissioner of the Lagos State Ministry of Education as an example of successful collaboration between government and private sector.
Casio advanced the efficiency of learning through scientific calculator technology, and demonstrated classes that are capable of developing students’ problem-solving skills. The project was a success, and in the future, Casio plans to conduct teacher training over a wide area of the state of Lagos, covering 1,000 people at 500 schools, with plans to expand into other states as well.
Support for the International Physics Olympiad 2023
Supporting a dream platform for children who love physics
The International Physics Olympiad is a tournament that aims to have youth at the high school level and below compete in physics and to encourage the development of physics through international exchanges. The 2023 event was held in Tokyo, where Casio provided its ClassWiz fx-82CW scientific calculators. 392 children from 84 countries who participated in the contest were able to challenge themselves to solve difficult problems by using the fx-82CW. It is our hope that this event will serve as an impetus for the participating children to achieve even bigger dreams around the world.
Women Do Science
Making science more familiar for everyone
The number of women who are active in scientific fields remains small worldwide.
In order to make science something that feels more familiar to female students, Casio Spain and Casio France are putting the spotlight on female scientists by distributing content that introduces the personal history and areas of research of each of them.
We believe that showing good role models to younger generations is another way to support learning, and are pouring effort into such activities.
Donation of used scientific calculators to Zimbabwe
To increase children’s mathematics abilities, leading to their aspirations
There are places around the world where poverty has rendered the educational environment less than sufficient. One such area is the eastern Nyanga district of the Republic of Zimbabwe. Casio UK has been collecting scientific calculators that can still be used but were scheduled to be disposed of from various schools around the UK, and has been donating them to the eastern Nyanga district since 2019. These activities extend beyond simply providing the scientific calculators as gifts, and include conducting workshops created in collaboration with educators on how to use scientific calculators and how to incorporate them into lessons. All of this is in support of a better educational environment for the children.
Supporting Online Study through ClassPad.net
Alongside GAKUHAN activities, Casio has newly provided the ClassPad.net solution for education settings for use during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. ClassPad.net is a comprehensive study platform that integrates study content such as online dictionaries with the use of digital notes.
Since 2018, Casio has operated ClassPad.net as a mathematics tool solution that uses technology from the equation processing system that Casio developed for scientific calculators outside Japan. The new ClassPad.net was upgraded in collaboration with seven education publishers, emerging as an online study tool containing study content for six academic subjects in the high school curriculum in Japan, with added features that are useful for online study. More than 10 publishing companies have provided content over a period of two years.
A beta launch was released in April 2021 with restricted features, followed by a full launch in September 2021.
Previous digital study tools required the use of multiple applications such as dictionary and other applications, depending on what they were to be used for. The new ClassPad.net fully integrates digital notes and study content, helping to nurture the thinking skills of students and enabling them to study more efficiently. Since data is saved to the cloud, students can use the solution at school or from home as long as they have a personal computer, tablet or other device. With ClassPad.net, study becomes an interactive process between students and teachers.
Over the two year period from April 2021 to March 2023, more than 1,000 schools in total adopted the beta version, the trial version, and the full commercial product version. In August 2023, ClassPad.net became ClassPad.net Version.5. The new version supports active learning, which has been widely sought after in classrooms in recent years. It does this with, for instance, its simultaneous editing function, which makes it possible for multiple students to edit a single note at the same time, and its template function.
In November 2022, ClassPad.net received the GIGA School Special Category Award in the 19th Japan e-Learning Awards.
Casio will continue to strengthen its products and support various forms of learning by pursuing co-creation with schools, while listening to feedback from classrooms.
