In recent years, growing concerns have been raised about the decline in biodiversity, in parallel with increases in the importance of “biodiversity and ecosystem” classes in high schools. In this study, we developed teaching materials for biodiversity education. In the development of materials teaching about the “biodiversity of freshwater fishes,” fieldwork was conducted by setting a survey site at Shingashi River (Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture); a total of 136 surveys (of fish and the environment) were conducted in summer, fall, and winter. In each survey, a total of 12 species of fish, including the threatened Oryzias latipes and invasive Micropterus dolomieu, and environmental data were obtained, from which a dataset for teaching materials was created. The application of these teaching materials at a high school enabled each learner to analyze data such as “mean value,” “variance,” “standard deviation,” “boxplot,” “scatter plot,” “correlation coefficient”, and test hypotheses about biodiversity. Exploration activities using these teaching materials can be expected to enable more advanced learning in the fields of ecology, statistics, and information processing, depending on what the learner has learned in advance. We will continue to explore the possibilities provided by these teaching materials in future work.

In high school “Biology”, students study content related to biotechnology. Many teachers think that these experiments are necessary, but only about 20% of teachers who answered the questionnaireare, conducted due to reasons such as “lack of experimental equipment and reagents”, “insufficient class time”, and “insufficient budget”. Therefore, in this study, we tried to solve the above-mentioned problems that hinder the implementation of experiments, and to develop teaching materials so that a series of experiments of Escherichia coli transformation, PCR, and electrophoresis can be carried out in a relevant manner. We were able to develop teaching materials that can be used for experiments during class hours at low cost, using materials that are as familiar as possible. In addition, we practiced the classes using the developed teaching materials, and investigated the effects by conducting a subsequent questionnaire. We were able to carry out experiments in class without any problems, and we could obtain some results. In addition, more than 70% of the students expressed positive feedback, but some improvements were needed in manual PCR. In the questionnaireare of academic achievement, the accuracy rate was higher in the students who did the experiment than in the students who did not do it, so it became clear that conducting the experiment with the developed teaching materials will contribute to the establishment of the learning content of the students.

The biology textbooks for high schools have included more content related to gene functions than ever before. The High School Course of Study in Japan explains that the objective of Advanced Biology is to enable students to deepen understanding of basic concepts, principles, and laws of biology through observations and experiments, as well as to foster their ability and attitudes to perform biological investigations. However, there are few experiment materials for understanding novel roles and principles along with DNA experiments. Here we developed experiment materials for understandings of the mechanism of self-incompatibility with the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and electrophoresis for the self-incompatibility (S) genes in a Japanese pear. The S-allele genotypes of most varieties of Japanese pears have been identified, and seeds with a part of expected genotypes will not appear depending on the crossing pairs of varieties. Thus we developed an allele-specific PCR for the self-incompatibility gene to diagnose S-allele genotypes, which helps understandings of the mechanism of self-incompatibility and recognition of the S-gene function. The practice by high school students and the accompanying questionnaire surveys revealed that this experiment has a potential to stimulate students’ understanding of self-incompatibility and their interests on genes, and brought out some problems to be solved.

We should analyze the obtained results objectively in an inquiry-based study. In the study itself, our students usually gather data with variation from an experiment. It is important to analyze the data scientifically, whereas, some students interpret these sets of data subjectively or conveniently only calculating a mean from small set of data without using a statistical method. These inquiry-based studies aren’t scientific, but we should introduce statistical methods to the class and students would therefore construct evidence-based arguments and explanations. In order to give students an experience of statistical method, scaly leaves of onion were used as materials to gather data measured the length of the long sides of the cells and the diameter of the nucleus in the inner and outer layers under a microscope. These data were analyzed by students using the t-test, a basic explanation for the t-test was also performed in the class. Most students found no significant difference between the diameter of the inner layer nucleus and the diameter of the outer layer nucleus, but found a significant difference in cell side length. While some students observed different results, the students discussed those results and could have become aware of the importance of statistical method as an objective evaluation. Through the practice of this study, it was suggested that the students became interested in statistical tests.

Chromatography has been widely used in senior high school biology classes, to separate and detect photosynthetic pigments. In our school, other experiments have been performed, including observing an absorption spectrum using a direct-view spectroscope, carbon dioxide absorption, and oxygen emission using gas detector tubes. Along with the abovementioned experiments, we focused on ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, a major protein involved in the dark reaction of photosynthesis. Therefore, the lesson was constituted and practiced so that students could easily separate and detect ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase from a spinach extract using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

We attempted to develop qualitative and quantitative analyses regarding teaching materials for organic matter decomposition by microorganisms for junior high and high school classes in the biological field. We chose Pleurotus djamor based on ligninolytic activities and growth rates on PDA plate medium, and then cultivated it on a bamboo (Phyllostachys reticulata) culm powder followed by an examination of the dry weight loss of the culture associated with a chemical analysis of the culm principal components. P. djamor initiated fruiting within 3 months of incubation. The dry mass loss reached ca. 26% after 3 months of incubation. The amounts of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin decreased statistically significant compared to those at the start of incubation. A simplified analysis method for the principal chemical components of plant cell wall was also established. The proposed teaching material using the bamboo culm powder for over time observation of decomposition of organic matter is more suitable than the existing materials such as sawdust and paper for cultivating mushrooms since the proposed content allows for the cultivation of mushrooms without additive nutrients.