News Release: Tokyo Individualized Educational Institute, Inc. (4745 TSE 1)
February 4, 2019

SDG-Inspired Programming Course in Toyosu
Expanding cognitive ability and contributing toa sustainable society
Tokyo Individualized Educational Institute, Inc. (main office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; President andRepresentative Director Katsuki Saito), a member of the Benesse Group, will begin classes for thefirst "Benesse Science Class STEM Programming Course" on February 17, 2019 (Sunday) inToyosu, Tokyo.
The shift to mandatory programming education for elementary school students will begin in 2020.
The Benesse Science Class created the year-long STEM Programming Course to expand on theindividual programming courses thus far. This course was created based on our belief in theimportance of children learning programming and what we view as the experiences that will help
children thrive in an unpredictable future.
The STEM Programming Course features original curriculum that takes the flexibility of "STEM
education" comprehensively covering the sciences, with elements of the "two S's". STEM refers toscience, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The "two S's" refers to society andsustainability.
-Ingenuity making towns moreenjoyable-Disaster prevention andtechnology-Energy conservation ideas-Urban design-Transportation systems-Transforming parks

This course goes beyond simply introducing the joy of creating something through programming.
This course challenges students to use programming to resolve relevant social issues. In asense, this is SDG-inspired programming. SDGs are goals through 2030 adopted at the United
Nations to promote sustainable development. The movement promotes proactively cooperating
to resolve problems affecting the planet.
In one of classes in the STEM Programming Course, a robot will be used as a disaster rescue
robot through which students will evaluate the programming used to dispatch robots todisaster sites. Children will also be asked to evaluate the types of disasters that could occur in aheavily populated town and what can be done for disaster prevention. Children will also take turns
presenting their opinions. For example, areas near oceans face the risk of a tsunami. Rivers present
the risk of falling into the water.

Dense residential areasahave a risk of firess. Children will
w have vario
ous ideas onn how to useetechnolo
ogy to prevent disasters. The experiience of thin
nking aboutt links betw
ween social
manageement and technology
twill challen
nge children
n to make unpredictablle futures innto
sustainable societies. Inspiratiion brings the world toge
ether and paves a way too the future. This
one-yeaar program period
pwill proovide the lea
arning experiences that enablee
this tyype of thinking.

The STEM Prog
gramming Co
ourse will pro
omote three types of skills developm
ment.
◆Prooblem resolution skills - TheT ability to evaluate soocial issues anda new techhnology toge
ether
◆Collaboration skkills - The abbility to cooperate with otthers in proa
active and intteractive lea
arning◆Pro
ogramming-b
based analys
sis - The abillity to think loogically fromm a programm
ming perspective
This ccourse is nott designed too develop "peeople with programmingg skills".
This ccourse fosterrs "pioneers with the abillity to apply cognitivec
reaasoning deveeloped throu
ugh
programmming".
All course contentt is original material
mdesiigned by the Benesse Sc
cience Classs.
Up to 8 students perr class, eachh class with a main instru
uctor and an assistant teeacher. Both staff
have exxperience in groupgeducaation and faccilitation. Classrooms aree equipped w
with tablets andaschool ssupplies so studentssdonn't need to brring anythingg or take any
ything home.. The classro
oom isconveniently locatedd immediately near Toyoosu Station (1 minute walk from Tokyyo Metro YurrakuchoLine, 2 m
minute walk from Yurikam
mome Line).

◇Benesse Science Class STEM Programming Course◇
Course start date: February 17, 2019 (Sunday)

Location: Benesse Science Class Toyosu Classroom

Course schedule, time : Once per month, 90 minutes per classClass structure: STEM Beginners (1st & 2nd graders), STEM Intermediate (3rd & 4thgraders)Address: TB Toyosu Bldg., 4F 4-1-23 Toyosu, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0061*Located inside the Tokyo Individualized Educational Institute-iPad, Apple TV: Apple, iPad, and Apple TV are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the United States ofAmerica and other counties and regions.
-littleBits, DROID INVENTOR KIT: littleBits and "DROID INVENTOR KIT" are trademarks of littleBits Electronics
Inc.
-ScratchJr: ScratchJr was developed through a collaboration between the Tufts University DevTech Researchgroup, the MIT Media Lab Lifelong Kindergarten group, and the Playful Invention Company. See
http://scratchjr.org (japanese only) for details.
-Scratch: Scratch was designed, developed, and is maintained by the MIT Media Lab Lifelong Kindergarten group.
-Pyonkee: Pyonkee is an iPad application developed by SoftUmeYa based on Scratch in accordance with aScratch source code license from the MIT Media Lab. The app is available for download for free via theAppStore.
See the following website for details. http://www.softumeya.com/pyonkee/ja/(japanese only)