The United Nations has designated water sanitation and safety as one of millennium goals and has emphasized the role of international cooperative efforts in achieving this goal. Promoting awareness to the nations about riverine environments is one approach to this goal and science education has the potential to actualize it. “SimRiver,” a program simulator that uses diatoms to enhance the understanding of the relationship between human activity and water quality, is a useful tool for achieving this aim. While previous studies have indicated the advantages of using SimRiver in classroom activities, these studies also revealed the necessity for bringing about improvements in several areas. Revisions were made in both the software itself and in the lesson plans incorporating the use of software, and the effectiveness of these revisions was assessed via a questionnaire study. The results suggest that classroom activities incorporating both the improved version of Sim River and the enhanced lesson plans succeed in promoting the awareness of river environments more effectively than the previous ones, and in motivating students to conduct additional independent study. In addition, a multilingual version of SimRiver has currently been developed for international use based on the original Japanese version. Web-based multilingual educational teaching aides composed of a Web-based SimRiver simulator, streaming movies, visual tools and a reporting system for classes using these tools are also being prepared in order to encourage international communication in the spirit of the United Nations' millennium development goal.

Innovative approaches need to be adopted to meet the challenge of ensuring that graduates at the end of their course of study are not only strong in their discipline, but also have the required generic skills to give them a good standing within their selected professions. This paper reports on a study that examined how well academic skills are embedded into the undergraduate Environmental Science curriculum at Deakin University in Australia. It reports on students' self evaluation of their essay writing skills, and a case study that involves a discipline specialist working with an academic skills advisor to enhance student generic skills. It discusses the patchy nature of current implementation of programs for generic skill education.

Vegetables and fruits are good sources of free radical scavengers or antioxidants. To evaluate the free radical scavenging activity of a plant extract, a few simple steps using the 1,1-diphenyl-2- picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) assay can be followed. Any plant part can be processed to produce crude extracts which can be used for testing. Using this technique, a small class of tertiary students determined the antioxidant property of ethanolic crude leaf extracts of some endemic and indigenous plants. The plants used were Ardisia pyramidalis Roth (Myrsinaceae), Baccaurea tetrandra (Baill.) Mull.Arg. (Phyllanthaceae), Chisocheton pentandrus (Blanco) Merr. (Meliaceae), Ficus septica Burm. (Moraceae), Parameria laevigata (Juss.) Moldenke (Apocynaceae),Parartocarpus venenosus (Zoll. & Moritzi) Becc. (Moraceae), Streptocaulon baumii Decne. (Asclepiadaceae), Uncaria perrottetii (A. Rich) Merr. (Rubiaceae), and Voacanga globosa (Blanco) Merr. (Apocynaceae). Crude leaf extracts of U. perrottetti and B. tetrandra were observed to possess a high free radical scavenging activity with values beyond 90% of that of gallic acid. These were fractionated further, and subsequent assays showed that ethyl acetate fractions for both plants had high free radical scavenging activity indicating that they contain potential chemopreventive agents against many diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disorders and aging. Free radical scavenging activities demonstrated by leaf extracts of A. pyramidalis and C. pentandrus did not reach 70% of that of gallic acid. All the rest of the plant extracts showed very low or no free radical scavenging activity.

Ever since the Course of Study (CS) draft in 1947, revision has been carried out about every 10 years. In 1969, the curriculum requirement for lower secondary school students in grades 7 – 9 (3-year timeframe) was 420 periods of science study. In 1977, the requirement was 350 periods; in 1989, it was 315 – 350 periods; and in 1998, it was 290 periods. After this decrease, 2008 has brought a significant increase in requirements. The CS revised in 2008 specifies 385 periods of science as necessary. The new CS for science emphasizes the following aims: to be actively engaged in nature and natural phenomena; to develop the ability to analyze, explain and express the results of observations and experiments; to develop an attitude of respect towards life and contribute to conservation of the natural environment. The CS for science was revised as to the following subject matters. In classification, according to the former CS, we taught Spermatophyta and Vertebrata only, but the newly revised version includes Cryptogamae and Invertebrata. It also reintroduces the study of heredity and evolution, including mention of DNA. Finally, in the unit ‘Nature and Humans,' the topic ‘conservation of the natural environment and use of scientific technology' is added. Specifically, the new CS calls for the following improvements: to have substantial experience in nature; to regard the connection between scientific study and human society as important; and to develop environmental education.