During the dissection of a chicken (Gallus domesticus) performed at a medical junior college and a medical vocational school, no linear correlation was observed between the rate students were able to identify and observe the target organ (identification rate) and the distance (depth) from a section to the target organ, but was observed with the weight of the target organ. Such a correlation was more marked when the target organ weighed approximately 6 g or less. The linear correlation between the identification rate and that of students who had previously observed the target organ was higher than this. Furthermore, when the students who had previously observed the target organ accounted for 50%, the identification rate was highest if they had observed it in static images, followed by animated and actual images, in this order. Based on these results, in order to increase the identification rate, it may be appropriate to instruct students to pay attention to organs they have not previously observed in static, animated, and actual images, in this order, and lighter ones when the target organ weighs 6 g or less.

Raptors are known for vomiting pellets that contain undigested matters such as bones or hairs. Pellets are used as a general method of investigating feeding habits of raptors. Owl pellets are used as teaching materials for food webs in the United States. Ohshika et al. (2010) carried out lessons with owl pellets imported from the United States, and suggested that pellets are effective as teaching materials for food webs at junior high schools. However, US pellets are not familiar for Japanese children and they are a problem for the teachers because they cannot identify contents of pellets. Under the new Japanese course of study, the use of real life experience, utilization of natural history museums, and application of local resources are emphasized. In this research, teaching material using owl pellets from local zoos in Japan was developed. Owl pellets have been collected from nine zoos in Japan, and analyzed their contents. As a result, owls in the zoos consume mainly mice or chickens. Therefore, "bone chart" of these animals was developed.

Plant material, medium and substratum for pollen germination in the laboratorywork on "Pollen germination and pollen tube growth" at the lower secondary schoollevel is revised. In addition to Impatiens balsamina L. and I. walleriana Hook.f.(Balsaminaceae), we propose to use Albuca virens (Lindl.) P.C. Manning & Goldblatt(Asparagaceae) for plant material in this practical work due to the following reasons;1) pollens germinate within 10 min after shedding of pollens, 2) the flowering seasoncontinues from May to November, and 3) the division of generative cell occurs inpollen grain before pollen germination, so students can confirm the chromosome num-ber after meiosis at the same time as the observation of pollen germination.Furthermore, we propose the use of cellophane sheet as a substratum for the pollengermination instead of agar, because we can use it by cutting only about 1 square cmand the addition of a 10% sucrose solution.