A study on a science curriculum including experimental demonstration of environmental radioactivity was carried out for science classes in an upper secondary school and a teachers college. In the classes, radioactivity of K-40 in cigarette ash and air-borne Rn-progeny were first revealed by means of radiochemical measurements using GM and scintillation counters, and then the explanation for radioactivity was followed on the uses of radiation and nuclear energy. The college students majoring in science fully understood the concept of risk-benefit balance in the environmental and/or energy problems through their learning of permissible concentration of radioactivity. The other college students performed the experimental work in a mediocreway, and an additional lecture on the statistical treatment of the data was necessary to help them in estimatingthe reliability of information. The students of secondary school also understood the natural occurence of radioactivity by the experimental demonstration. However, fairly large differences were observed among schools in the degrees of understanding in the subjects such as half-life of radioactivity and control of nuclear fission. Thus, for students of secondary schools, it is suggested that the subjects be chosen corresponding to their abilities.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of children's spatial cognition of their everyday natural environment. The subjects were 44 children selected from an elementary school and a junior high school located in the central part of Lake Tanzawa, Kanagawa Prefecture. The subjects were from four age groups: second, fourth, sixth, and eighth grades. Each subject was asked to draw a sketch map of Lake Tanzawa and its surrounding area. The resulting maps were analyzed in terms of three variables: the level of the spatial organization, the position of the vantage point, and the size of the area represented. The results of this study were as follows: (1) There was some development over the grades in the level of the spatial organization represented. (2) Almost all the subjects above the fourth grade were able to adopt the overhead view of the environment. (3) However, only about 20% of sixth grade subjects were able to represent the general shape of Lake Tanzawa as a whole. (4) There were correlations between the level of the spatial organization and the size of the area represented in the fourth, sixth, and eighth grades.

The principles of lever and work that are the preliminary concepts of energy were investigated historically. Dynamic assumptions on the principle of lever continued to be discussed historically, after the works of Aristotel, by Hero, Thabit, Jordanus, Tartaglia, Ubaldo, and Galileo. That is the reason why the principle of lever was a dynamic problem of the industrial techniques in distinction from the balance. And they didn't have the correct understanding to synthesize mathe matical and physical method, because they had no concept of the product of different dimension in the Greek mathematics. The principle of work was not deduced immediately from the principle of lever. The correct understanding of the concept of work was obtained through the insights of the industrial techniques on the availabilities of machine. From the above views, it is necessary that we realize the questions about the learning of energy, and eleven questions were discussed.

When a cylinder with small holes on its side wall is filled with water, the water squirts out and flies away describing a parabolic curve. As a teaching material for the education of science in the lower secondary school, the strength of the flying water is observed and the relationship between the depth of water in the cylinder and the pressure for the squirt is considered. The length of this flight of water is calculatable theoretically. However, in some textbooks the flying distances are given much shorter than the theoretical values. Furthermore, incorrect illustrations of the flying water from the cylinder are found in some reference books, and the misrepresentation that a lower hole squirts farther than upper holes is given in some manuals for the teacher. In the author's experiment, it was possible to make the flights of water near the theoretical values by means of enlarging the holes. In this paper, the results of an analysis on the squirt of water from the cylinder were reported, and considering the cause of the above-mentioned discrepancies, an improved method for the experiment as a teaching material was presented.

A study was carried out for the purpose of clarifying an educational effect of writing in science education. Sentences in biological reports of sophomores, graduation theses of science course students and science educational papers of teachers were investigated from the five different viewpoints. From the results, it was clarified that the sentences written in their papers involved some critical is sues in two different points: logicality and objectivity. It was considered that this fact was one of the utilizable reference data for the teaching of writing in science education at the primary and the secondary schools. However, the standardization for science education of the criterions used would be carried out in future.

After the Second World War, our science educational world has been received a lot of influence from the United States of America. In this study I compared Japanese textbooks in both lower and upper secondary school with those in U.S.A. about the matter of the earth science, and investigated both the difference of the introduction and the development of teaching materials and the terms making an appearance in the explanation sentences. As the result of that, it was proved that though Japanese science educational world had received a great influence from the modernized movement of the science education in U.S.A. strongly, it had accepted those curriculums -ESCP etc.-without absorbing completely on account of the existing educational system and the unique natural environment.

The culture acquired by Japanese students through Rika-kyouiku, science education, is consid ered. In Japan, every year, more than 90% of students from lower secondary schools enter upper secondary schools, where the natural science is taught on a rather high level. It is significant to ex plain the necessity of science education to Japanese people: the students or their parents. The cultures in the world have the respective ways of understanding the nature. Each way de pends on its own intrinsic culture, where the way has been developed. Consequently, for Japanese people the natural science grown in Europe should be regarded as a foreign culture; however, from the present investigation of prefaces in the current Rika-kyoukasho, science textbooks, Rika-kyouiku does not direct its attention to that strong feature in the natural science. The science education in the country of non-western culture should establish contacts with the folklore and the cultural anthropology where the country is considered.

This study was carried out to assess and gain detailed information regarding the nature of elementary school teachers' environmental attitudes in Japan and the Philippines and the factors affecting them as an initial step towards program development of teacher training. The findings of this study, with some limitations, are summarized as follows: (1) Demographic factors (age, gender, and location) caused significant differences in the Japanese teachers' actual behavior towards the environment. (2) For Filipino teachers, only age was found to influence their environmental affect and actual commitment. (3) The environmental affect of Japanese teachers have an effect on their behavior. (4) Knowledge was not related to either the affective or conative components of the Japanese teachers' attitude. (5) The environmental affect of Filipino teachers was found to influence their actual commitment while knowledge influenced their verbal commitment. (6) Japanese teachers were found t_o have better knowledge and affect towards the environment but the Filipino teachers' environmental behavior was measured to be more favorable.