In order to promote information and communications technology (ICT) education, demand for the development of tablet-learning materials continues to increase. In this study, we created two simulations for teaching “genetic regularity and genes” in a lower secondary school science class. The first application simulated following genetic regularity. When parents have genotypes of heterozygotes, the ratio of offspring genotypes is “dominant homozygotes: heterozygotes: recessive homozygotes” = “1: 2: 1” and the ratio of offspring traits is “dominant traits: recessive traits” = “3: 1.” When our tablet application was used in the class, students were able to create more offspring genotypes and to get more accuracy results from simulation as compared to the general method of using chopsticks. Our second application was a simulation showing that the terms of a “dominance” trait or a “recessive” trait is not related to the selective advantage or disadvantage of the individual. The industrial melanism of a species of moth was provided as an example. In this simulation, it was assumed that the dominant and recessive traits were black and white body colors, respectively. The application simulated the likelihood of survival of the moths. The black (white) moths were at an advantage for survival when the background color was black (white), whereas they were at a disadvantage for survival when the background was white (black). We expected that using the application would help the students to realize that the terms “dominance” and “recessive” are not related to selective advantage or disadvantage. When our tablet application was used in the class, most of the students were able to reach the conclusion that a dominant trait was not necessarily mean a selective advantageous trait. However, as a result of questionnaire survey, the students’ misconception for dominance and recessive was not revised.

In the present paper, we focus on epidermal fish keratocytes derived from scales of a medaka (Oryzias latipes var.) as an observation object for living cell behavior in lower secondary science classes. Our experiments revealed that scales had to be collected from a medaka within 1 hour after death to obtain living keratocytes. When the collected scales were cultured between coverslips at a temperature of 16°C or 26°C for 2.5 hours, cell sheets were extended on the surface of the coverslip from the scales and isolated keratocytes were located around the cell sheets, suggesting that the keratocytes had separated from the cell sheets. We also captured the time-lapse images of cell sheets and isolated keratocytes using a phase contrast microscope. The time-lapse observation demonstrated the following two kinds of cell behavior: (i) single keratocytes migrated almost linearly with fast speed (～16 μm/min) maintaining their overall fan shape; and (ii) keratocytes located in the periphery of a cell sheet periodically extended and retracted lamellipodia toward the outside of the cell sheet. To summarize, these results suggest that keratocytes derived from medaka scales are available for real-time observation of living cell behavior in lower secondary science classes. Further studies are needed to verify the educational efficacy of “hands-on” observing cell behavior.