Azo dyes comprise over a half of all synthetic dyes. Some of them, eg. P-hydroxyazobenzene, Orange II, etc., are also important as teaching materials of chemical experiments in upper secondary high school or in university. The object of this paper is to describe the use of sodium 4'-hydroxyazobenzene-4-sulfonate(HAS) for the same purpose. This compound has a simple skeleton of p-hydroxyazobenzene with an additional sulfoxyl group, and can easily be accessed by the method well established for Orange II. Merits of this compound in using chemical experiments are as follows. i) HAS, which exists in azo form in a neutral aqueous solution, can easily be explained as to its structure and spectrum, while those of Orange II is rather complexive due to azo-quinoid tautomerism. ii) As an acidic azo dyes, HAS can be chromatographed by the same conditions as in food dyes, so that the com pound is just adequate in making azo dyes to be familiar for students, as well as in illustrating them effectiveness of thin layer chromatography (TLC). These characteristics show that HAS is usuful as a teaching material of dprogressive study after p-hydroxy azobenzene in upper secondary high school or that of foundamental organic synthesis in university. This compound is also usuful to study "separation of substances" of lower secondary school, since the experiments include essential techniques of recrystallization and chromatography. Thus the subject is thought to be appropri ate for a teaching material in faculty of education.

For purpose of obtaining the basic data to take up the diffusion of substance as a kind of teaching aids, a simplified diffusion-measuring equipment was manufactured and the diffusion of copper sulphate in the aqueous solvent was determined. The equipment was designed based on the following two points: 1.The equipment shall make quantitative determination as well as visual observation to keep the image as the teaching material. 2.The equipment shall determine the variation of concentration at a spot in the cell with time as well as the concentration gradient in the cell. The equipment comprises two blocks-A, the determination cell and B, the colorimeter for determination of concentration the photometer unit of which moves up and down along the cell. The variation of concentration at a certain spot in the cell can be, therefore, continuously determined and the concentration gradient in the cell can be determined by moving the position of photometer unit as well. The diffusion coefficients determined of copper sulphate in aqueous solvents agreed so well with those in literatures that the equipment can be used for quantitative detem血 ation.Since the equipment is based on color imetcy, it can be generally used for determining the diffusion of colored substances visually observable in aqueous solvents. It is also a useful equipment for searching adequate substances and phenomena for observation and experiment to make the diffusion teaching aids.

This paper describes the improvement on instructional materials in astronomy for the science curriculum in Japanese school overseas. The star chart is used for identifing the constellations and the location of stars in the night sky. The author has developed a compact type of star chart for use in the region near the equator. In the region near the equator, it is difficult to use the ordinary type star charts which are made through the combination of southern and northern hemisphere board and can be called the combination type. A star chart showing the constellations located near the celestical equator would be more practical for use in locations near the earth's equator. The author thus proposes the use of star boards which show a cylinder containing the celestical sphere with the constellations scattered on the surface. The author calles this type a simple equator type star chart. This new type star chart has some merits as following. 1.It can be easily made by oneself. 2.One can easily understand the star movement for reasons of its structure. 3.It requires very easy operation for observation of stars located at various directions.

In the education of natural science in lower secondary school, it is an important study to make a distinction between direct and alternating electric currents through an experimentation or observation. On this account a simple method to measure the frequency of alternating current was devised. Light-emitting diode (LED) flashes with the same frequency as alternating current supplied. When a flash ing LED moves quickly, lighting spots are observed as a dashed line. In this experiment a LED was fixed on a disk which was turned by a motor. The turning speed was adjusted until the movement of lighting spots came to a standstill. At this stationary state the product of the number of lighting spots on the disk and the number of rotations per second is the frequency of the supplied current. For the measurement of rotation rate a special counting system effected by pushing the equal key of an electric calculator was applied. The pretty feature of lighting spots in this experiment is enough attractive for pupil and its demonstration effect as a teaching material is expected.

We designed the "dip method" as a simple and efficient method of obtaining sieve-tube exudate to apply the "sucrose-test paper" which was developed to detect easily sucrose. We investigated the leveles of sucrose collected by the dip method. Sucrose contents in the dip solution were measured with invertase-glucoseoxidase method. Two pinnate-compound leaves of the potato Solanum were cut at their petioles. The cut ends of petioles were dipped over night in water for adaptation. The exudation of sucrose into water through the petiole was the maximum during the first night after the adaptation and then daily decreased. The sucrose contents translocated were close to 6.6 μg per 1 cm2 -leaf area and increased proportionally to an increase of leaf area. Such a proportion, however, was not found when the stem bearing more than two pinnate-compound leaves was dipped in water. Thus, immersion of two individual matured leaves of Solanum in 50 ml of water at their petioles for a day and night after over-night adaptation was a sufficient condition to obtain the successful detection of sucrose in water. It is natural that one has to pay attention to the decrease of water resulting from water absorption by plants, light fluence rate given to plants in the daytime, and wilting of plants throughout the experiment. Since no technical difficulties exist in these procedures, we are convinced that the dip method is applicable even for the experiment in an elementary school or a lower secondary school to study the translocation of photosynthetic products in plants.

After the investigation process using written reports and papers, the researcher was able to find out the various roles played by the interdisciplinary ties ( межлредметные связи) in the task of teaching and up bringing of pupils in the secondary science educaion in the USSR. The roles of the interdisciplinary ties are shown as follows: 1. To promote the capability of pupils to understand and acquire the contents of the subject matter being studied. 2. To promote fixing and intensifying the knowledge acquired by pupils in the other subject areas. 3. To promote systematization and integration of knowledge from different subject areas. 4. To activate the thinking processes and to promote the development of the thinking abilities of pupils. 5. To promote understanding about the unity of nature and the development of the view about life and the world of pupils. It could be deduced from these roles that the interdisciplinary ties assure the improvement of the teaching and upbringing of pupils in the new compulsory education for a period of ten years. On the other hand, these roles seem to depict the shortcomings of the 'subject-system' (предметная система) as used in the USSR. The interdisciplinary ties were introduced in order to reflect the current status of science and society through science education under this system. In other words, the interdisciplinary ties could assure the improvement of the teaching and upbringing of pupils in the science education under both conditions of the ten-year compulsory education and the 'subject-system' in the USSR.

The photosynthesis is one of the most important concepts in the biology education, but is difficult one for the student to understand. According to Ausubel, to promote student's learning of scientific concepts, it is important to ascertain the cognitive structure which he already has had, and to teach in accordance with it. However, the student's existing cognitive structure about photosynthesis concept isn't made to be clear enough. Then, the purpose of this paper is to clarify this structure from following two points: the strength of connection among concepts in the cognitive structure and the reason of those connections. Firstly, the related 11 concepts to photosynthesis (i.e., the nutrition, the energy, the light, the chemical reaction, the water, the carbon dioxide, the oxygen, the chloroplast, the organic compound, the enzyme, and the respiration) are selected. Next, the subjects (76 students in the upper secondary school) are divided into two groups. In one group, the strength of connection between photosynthesis concept and one of those selected concepts is examined by the word association method. In another group, the reason of this connection is investigated by concept relations task. The findings are summarized as the following: 1. The connections of the photosynthesis with the chloroplast, the oxygen, and the light are strong. 2. The connections with the carbon dioxide, the chemical reaction, and the enzyme are weak. 3. The reasons of those connections which the subjects described are often inappropriate. From these findings, it is considered that the subjects generally incline to think that photosynthesis is the process which needs the light, takes place at the chloroplast, absorbs the carbon dioxide, and releases the oxygen. It is clarified that they don't recognize integratedly the photosynthesis concept in terms of the nutrition and the energy.

The followings are the major findings by this study: i) The astronomer's ability of the locomoting viewpoint, which is one of the various abilities in spatial cognition, had been contributing to make up the cellestial sphere concept through the astronomical history. ii) In the historical process to formulate the cellestial sphere concept, the astronomer's type of the locomoting viewpoint had gradually transited from type 1B to type IIA. iii) The transition(IB→IIA) in the astronomer's type of itis included in the learner's "Cognitive functional hierarchy of the locomoting viewpoint (IB→IA→IIA • IIB)." In the last part of this paper, the author refers to the strategies toward the improvement of the astronomy education.

By reviewing research literatures on play activities and related research areas, this study was intended to give a tentative outline of the interrelationship between play and exploration, and thereby to make clear the possible contribution of play activities to the learning of science. The research literatures suggest in abundance that play is a behavioral entity conceptually distinct from exploration and that it is very unlikely the child playing with an object learns much about any new features of that object other than by pure accident. But in the actual behavior sequence of the child, play activities seem to constitue together with exploration an activity cycle, i.e. a play/exploration cycle. The play/exploration cycle may function in the child's learning of science as a learning activity unit, in which play activities may effectively promote learning by their functioning as an intrinsically motivating agent.