This article examines the differences in Japanese and Finnish elementary school science (including life sciences) textbooks, focusing on the biology (life-domain) content. In the analysis, following an example set by prior research, the problems (questions) presented in the textbooks were divided into 13 categories and possible answers similarly to 4 categories. Analysis was also conducted on the learning contents, especially on which different species of lifeforms are introduced and how natural environment are presented. As the result, we not only found out major differences in method used in elementary school biology and approaches towards natural environments, but also significant differences on preferred types of problems in each county. In Japanese textbooks, problems with clear-cut and unambiguous answers promoting procedural scientific knowledge form the majority. In contrast, the Finnish textbooks include a lot of open-ended problems and importance is placed on the question “why” and nurturing personal relationship with nature and biology lesson contents. This Finnish emphasis on diversity in possible answers, many which draw from personal experiences and knowledge, is strongly linked with the seven key competencies promoted in the current National Core Curriculum. This research provides suggestions for developing and promoting competence-based biology education in both countries.

Article 2 of the Fundamental Law of Education stipulates that “respect life, cherish nature, and cultivate an attitude that contributes to environmental conservation.” In response to this, the Courses of Study is also trying to foster an “attitude that respects life.” In order to clarify the treatment of “respect for life” in upper secondary schools, this study investigated the descriptions of respect for life in the Courses of Study for Upper Secondary Schools that were announced in 2008. In addition, in order to clarify how high school students perceive “life,” a free-response questionnaire survey was conducted on 553 public high school students to answer the question of what “life” and “living things” are. As a result, it was confirmed that there is a difference between respect for life in science and respect for life in other subjects, that high school students do not clearly distinguish between biological concepts and life concepts, and that high school students are equipped with the concepts of “mechanics,” “objective knowledge,” “animism,” “anthropomorphism,” “animism,” “value,” and “life,” which have been shown in previous studies to be subconcepts of the view of life. This study also showed the necessity of adding subconcepts such as “death” and “equality” to the high school students’ view of life.

Teleology and use/disuse theory are two of the most common misconceptions about the mechanism of evolution. To correct these misconceptions and facilitate students in acquiring a proper understanding of the mechanism of evolution, I developed a hands-on teaching material based on real-life phenomena in this study. The teaching material focused on adaptive evolution, in which plant organs that aid in seed dispersal by wind (e.g., pappus) are reduced or lost on islands, and simulated the process of the evolution by mutation and natural selection using a handmade model. We conducted a teaching experiment using the material for college students and verified the effectiveness of the material by comparing their test scores about evolution before and after the practice. The results showed that total test scores on the definition of evolution, including the rejection of some misconceptions, increased significantly after the experiment. The percentage of students describing the evolution of biological traits in terms of mutation and natural selection was also significantly higher than before the experiment. However, there was a limited correction of misconceptions about teleology and use/disuse. Furthermore, the percentage of students who held the misconception that ‘natural selection occurs by chance’ was higher after the practice. The incorporation of structured inquiry and computer simulation may resolve these problems and enhance the teaching effectiveness of this material.

In basic biology, it is well known that the field of immunity is difficult to teach because of the lack of experimental tools. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate an education tool for learning about the immune system in basic biology, which does not require an experiment. A developed tool was composed of some illustrations with anime characters concerning each process in the immune system. Students participated in illustration sorting using Google Jamboard by doing pair-work and explained the process of the immune system using their results of sorting. Questionnaires were conducted to evaluate the developed tool from the aspect of knowledge acquisition and interest. According to the result of the questionnaire of knowledge acquisition, the students who used the developed tool got high scores compared to the students who learned from lecture. From the results of the questionnaire of the interest, it seems that the former students were able to participate in classes with high interest. The activity of illustration sorting using Google Jamboard would have a positive effect on student’s mindset and would derive high knowledge acquisition. On the other hand, the developed tool would be required some improvements, e.g., a care for student who confused interpretation of illustrations.

An experiment using silkworm dry cocoons with an inserted GFP gene using genetic recombination technology is being developed for use in high school classes. However, when the cocoons are reeled by high temperature cocoon cooking, the fluorescent protein is denatured by the heat. It is still difficult for students to reel GFP cocoons in limited lesson time while preventing the denaturation. With this background, we aimed to develop a new reeling method that can be experimented in limited lesson time and does not require exposure to high temperatures. As a result, we discovered that the sodium bicarbonate overnight method allowed liquid to enter the cocoon and made it perfect for reeling. Using this method, we were able to reel in GFP cocoons without high temperature and confirm the fluorescence of the reeled silks. As an educational practice, the experiment, the reeling of GFP cocoons using the sodium bicarbonate overnight method was conducted with third-year high school students, and the success rate of the students was high. This method can be implemented even in limited lesson time, and was found to a teaching material that students could be interested in silk.

Micropipettes are commonly used measuring instruments in life science research. Since the volume is in micro little units, it is highly versatile for other experiments. In recent years, basic molecular biology experiments such as gene recombination experiments of Escherichia coli and electrophoresis have been conducted in high schools. Accompanying this, the introduction of micropipettes is being promoted. In addition, detailed instructions on how to use a micropipette are provided in textbooks and collections of materials. Micropipettes are relatively inexpensive at around 5,000 to 10,000 JPY per pipette, but hundreds of thousands of yen are required to prepare for the number of students in the class. Syringes are instruments other than micropipettes that can measure liquids in units of micro little. For example, Terumo’s 1 mL tuberculin syringe has a minimum scale of 0.01 mL (10 μL). Therefore, in this study, we investigated a method of using a tuberculin syringe as a measuring instrument in micro little units instead of a micropipette. As a result, there was no significant difference between weighing by syringe with correcting for one memory and by micropipette. Since each syringe costs 20 to 30 yen, it will be a cost-effective alternative to a micropipette.