4:30 PM - 4:45 PM
[G03-11] Non-Slippery Sand Koshien: Citizen Science-based Earth Science Education Project
Keywords:outreach, friction, sand, citizen science
From the summer to the winter of 2021, "Non-Slippery Sand Koshien" was held as a part of JAMSTEC's 50th anniversary project (https://www.jamstec.go.jp/50th/suberanai/). The goal of this project is to determine the "most non-slippery sand in Japan", the sand with the highest frictional resistance in Japan, among sands submitted by general public. In order to submit sand for the competition, we only presented the rules of the game and the minimum requirements for submissions (non-toxic and self-explanatory collection process), and left the task of selecting the sand with the highest non-slip properties from among the various sands around us. Therefore, the process of citizens trying to find the least slippery sand can be said to be directly related to "Citizen Science," in which citizens participate in scientific research by collecting data.
This project is called "Koshien (=The National High School Baseball Championship)", because representative sands from each prefecture are selected to compete in a one-on-one tournament to determine the most non-slippery sand. It might be better to measure the friction coefficient of the submitted sand one by one to find the sand with the highest friction coefficient. However, there are two reasons why we intentionally adopted a competitive format. One is that it is difficult to evaluate the relative differences in friction coefficients of sands rigorously, since the coefficient of friction differs between static and dynamic condition and varies greatly depending on the sliding speed and the slip displacement. The other reason is that we aimed to turn a formal friction experiment into casual entertainment by using a "competitive" evaluation method.
The match was newly arranged based on a friction experiment on powder using a rotary friction test apparatus for this project (Fig. 1). 2g sand particles of less than 1mm in diameter are placed between three vertically aligned metal simulated rocks (25mm in diameter). 4MPa vertical load is applied and the upper and lower simulated rocks are rotated with constant torque acceleration. When the torque (shear stress) reaches a certain level, one of the sands start to slide, and the sand of the side that rotated 90 degrees (1/4 turn) first was determined to be the loser.
To make this project accessible to people other than the applicants, we distributed videos once a week (28 times in total) as a YouTube program. The program consisted of a 10 to 30 minute video introducing two or three games, the sand participating in the game, the live commentary, and the review after the game. Scientific value was added to the content of the matches through commentary by researchers based on the geological background of the sand and the measured physical properties of the sand (density, particle size distribution, and constituent minerals).
One of the characteristics of the sand submitted was that many of them contained a lot of metals such as iron (iron sand, etc.) and hard minerals (garnet, etc.). By organizing the reasons for the selected sand, we can evaluate the general public's recognition and knowledge of the physical phenomenon of friction, the process of gaining such awareness, and furthermore, help improve their scientific literacy.
From among the 50 sands, Wakasa oyster shell lime sand, a sand produced by baking and pulverizing oyster shells, was the least slippery sand. The goal of Citizen Science is to clarify the reason why the Wakasa oyster shell lime sand won. Since we were able to learn about various characteristics of sand friction through this project, the data obtained by the project will be used in industries as well as in education by disclosing the data. Many students and organizations that are usually involved in earth science participated in this project, so the characteristics of the participants may have been uneven. If we require diversity and randomness in the data to be collected in Citizen Science (which may lead to new discoveries), we must get citizens who are not interested in the project or the research to participate with interest.
This project is called "Koshien (=The National High School Baseball Championship)", because representative sands from each prefecture are selected to compete in a one-on-one tournament to determine the most non-slippery sand. It might be better to measure the friction coefficient of the submitted sand one by one to find the sand with the highest friction coefficient. However, there are two reasons why we intentionally adopted a competitive format. One is that it is difficult to evaluate the relative differences in friction coefficients of sands rigorously, since the coefficient of friction differs between static and dynamic condition and varies greatly depending on the sliding speed and the slip displacement. The other reason is that we aimed to turn a formal friction experiment into casual entertainment by using a "competitive" evaluation method.
The match was newly arranged based on a friction experiment on powder using a rotary friction test apparatus for this project (Fig. 1). 2g sand particles of less than 1mm in diameter are placed between three vertically aligned metal simulated rocks (25mm in diameter). 4MPa vertical load is applied and the upper and lower simulated rocks are rotated with constant torque acceleration. When the torque (shear stress) reaches a certain level, one of the sands start to slide, and the sand of the side that rotated 90 degrees (1/4 turn) first was determined to be the loser.
To make this project accessible to people other than the applicants, we distributed videos once a week (28 times in total) as a YouTube program. The program consisted of a 10 to 30 minute video introducing two or three games, the sand participating in the game, the live commentary, and the review after the game. Scientific value was added to the content of the matches through commentary by researchers based on the geological background of the sand and the measured physical properties of the sand (density, particle size distribution, and constituent minerals).
One of the characteristics of the sand submitted was that many of them contained a lot of metals such as iron (iron sand, etc.) and hard minerals (garnet, etc.). By organizing the reasons for the selected sand, we can evaluate the general public's recognition and knowledge of the physical phenomenon of friction, the process of gaining such awareness, and furthermore, help improve their scientific literacy.
From among the 50 sands, Wakasa oyster shell lime sand, a sand produced by baking and pulverizing oyster shells, was the least slippery sand. The goal of Citizen Science is to clarify the reason why the Wakasa oyster shell lime sand won. Since we were able to learn about various characteristics of sand friction through this project, the data obtained by the project will be used in industries as well as in education by disclosing the data. Many students and organizations that are usually involved in earth science participated in this project, so the characteristics of the participants may have been uneven. If we require diversity and randomness in the data to be collected in Citizen Science (which may lead to new discoveries), we must get citizens who are not interested in the project or the research to participate with interest.