Selected Past Projects
Television, policy dialogue, laboratories, museums and public events: testing research questions in society.
The Kano Lab’s three current research areas grew through long-term research in practice. We do more than deliver activities to the public. We study how television, policy dialogue, visual resources, laboratories, museum learning and public events are produced and implemented; evaluate who participates; examine the questions and dialogue that emerge; and identify whom an activity has not reached.
Each project page describes its purpose, audiences, partner institutions, the lab’s role, methods, outputs, awards and relationship to current research.
NHK educational television: Think Like a Crow and Viewpoint Science
Kei Kano served on programme committees and contributed to the production, development and research support of educational television focused not only on scientific facts but on scientific ways of seeing and thinking. These ideas were extended into school lessons, workshops, a card game and books.
Deliberative public comment (PESTI Project: Public Engagement with Science, Technology and Innovation Policy)
We designed and evaluated participation in science, technology and innovation policy as a process combining accessible information, dialogue, deliberation, opinion formation and connection to policy. A central question was how to include people who were not already strongly interested in science and technology.
Human Genome Map for Every Home
Developed under the supervision of Japan’s Ministry of Education, this poster opened a visual entry point into the big picture of genome science. Kei Kano contributed as a leader of the Kyoto University production team. The project connected chromosome maps and gene functions with research, medicine and ELSI, and later expanded through an English version, revisions, a book and a research article.
Pluripotent stem-cell education
We co-developed laboratory programmes in which upper-secondary students encountered pluripotent stem-cell experiments, hypothesis testing, dialogue with researchers and ethical and social questions. This work later developed into the board game Try Stem Cell Research!
Science cafés, art–science events and audience diversity
We evaluated dialogue events not only through satisfaction, but through intentions to participate, actual audiences, engagement with science and technology, and motivations. We studied who may be reached through cultural and artistic entry points that do not place science at the forefront.
Joint research with NIFREL: Encountering the Unexpected
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kano Lab and the living museum NIFREL began collaborative research and development on active-learning methods for zoos and aquariums in the With/After-COVID era. The partners designed learning that enables children to notice something puzzling, make predictions, test ideas and develop further questions through the observation of living organisms, even when a museum visit is not possible.
Following online workshops on capybaras and penguins and pilot activities with nearby primary schools, the free learning programme Encountering the Unexpected began operating in July 2024. It connects three stages: pre-visit video and activities, observation at NIFREL, and post-visit work such as creating animal cards or comparing rankings with graphs. The programme is designed to foster multiple perspectives, articulation of questions, inference and enjoyment of inquiry. Videos, worksheets and a learning guide are freely available. The programme was planned by the Kano Lab and NIFREL and supervised by Kei Kano.
Related materials
NIFREL. (2024, July 11). Shiga University × NIFREL: The “Encountering the Unexpected” learning programme begins [Japanese webpage]. https://www.nifrel.jp/eventnews/2024/07/post-194.html
Faculty of Education, Shiga University. (2020, December 15). Second online workshop, “Encountering the Unexpected with Capybaras” [Japanese webpage]. https://www.edu.shiga-u.ac.jp/news/11438/
Dialogue training for researchers and graduate students
We developed programmes that help researchers listen, communicate and share questions across different values rather than only explain their work. This has developed into training and a practical book.
Connecting past achievements to current questions
- Educational television informs culturally relevant STEAM and game development.
- PESTI informs public engagement with people of differing levels of interest and the practice of RRI.
- The Human Genome Map informs visual communication of complex science, genome literacy, and dialogue between frontier life science and society.
- Stem-cell education informs learning about frontier science, ELSI and games.
- Audience-diversity evaluation informs inclusive science communication.
- The NIFREL collaboration informs inquiry-based learning that connects social-education facilities, online and on-site experiences, and observation of living organisms.
- Dialogue training informs collaboration among researchers, teachers, policymakers and AI developers.