Minakami Municipal Niiharu Elementary School, 5th grade

With the theme of “Let‘s discover the nature of Niiharu,” we learned about the reality of Akaya no Mori, one of Japan’s great rich and living ecospheres, got a sense of how wonderful our local nature is, and experienced the nature of Niiharu. We divided our exploration into the three themes of topography, plants, and animals, and became aware of the issue facing Akaya no Mori: an increase in the number of Japanese deer. Through asking questions to experts and interactions among children, we considered how humans and Japanese deer should coexist in the future.