The exhibitions of the Exploratorium, founded in 1969 by the physicist Frank Oppenheimer, are believed to be one of the origins of "hands-on exhibitions" in science museums. The mission statement of the Exploratorium, "the museum of science, art and human perception" indicates clearly that their goal is not to exhibit what science really is. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between Oppenheimer's thought development and the crystallization of his idea of a new type of museum, Exploratorium, through deciphering various kinds of documents on his life and thought. The findings are as follows : (1) his insistence on art and sensibility comes from the fact that his mother was a professional painter, his family loved arts, and he was strongly committed to music, (2) his view of science was formed through the experience of "playing with haywire things" and the influence of his brother in childhood, his experience as a physicist, the commitment of ESS and PSSC, and teaching experience in high schools and university, (3) his view of a museum was formed through the experiences of ESS and PSSC activities, and development of his "Library of Experiments" at Colorado University.

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We investigated the effect of context dependency on the field-dependent field-independent in cognitive styles of lower secondary school students, concerning the application of memorized geological information. In this research we carried out five investigations as follows: 1). Determining the student's field-dependent field-independent type in cognitive styles by Embedded Figures Test. 2). Investigation of the effect via languages reproduced after memorizing geological information by text-book. 3). Investigation of the effect via sketches reproduced after memorizing geological information by text-book. 4). Investigation of the effect via languages reproduced after memorizing geological information by figures. 5). Investigation of the effect via sketches reproduced after memorizing geological information by figures. We divided students into two types by result of the EFT. The students who received a high grade on the EFT were the field independent type, and the students received a low grade on the EFT were field-dependent type. We compared the EFT results with the results of investigations, 2)-5). As a result, when students reproduced geological information, they had a tendency to depend on context. Many field-independent type students given text-books could reproduce geological information in cognitive style language, while, many field-dependent students, given figures, could reproduce geological information cognitive style via sketches. Therefore, we think that the effect of context dependency appeared in the reproduction of geological information.

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The Purpose of this study is to investigate when students have a misconception of the traffic flow model for electric current in parallel and series circuit and whether formal instruction in science class will bring about changes of the model or not. For this purpose we conducted research on electric current from elementary school sixth graders to second year university students. The following results were obtained. 1) The number of students who used the traffic model increased by grade. The number of subjects showed especially sharp increases in eighth and ninth graders. Consequently, we found that approximately 80% of second year university students used the traffic flow model. 2) Less than 5% students used a scientific model and could understand the link between declarative knowledge of electric current and the image of a parallel and series circuit. Therefore, science class did not modify students' misconception. 3) Although students expanded their knowledge on circuit after the ninth grade, we found that their knowledge of electric current has no link to the correct image of electric current.

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The purpose of this research is to inquire into students' thinking on the manufacturing scene, and explain its structure. Therefore, we investigate what elements students took into consideration on the manufacturing scene, and analyze them based on factor analysis. As a result, four factors have been extracted, their structure made clear by utilizing cluster analysis. This structure is divided into two groups : one group consists of factors II, III, IV, and another of factor I. Factor I is regarded as an important thinking factor for work which forms the main subject of the manufacturing scene, and factor II, III and IV are placed as complementary thinking factors by which work is supported. Factor I is composed by the combination of tools and machines, careful consideration of processing materials, and the attention to work. And factor II is considered to be composed of the expectations and the emotions involved in work.

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In order to create an awareness in school of the association between science and technology with daily life, daily necessities were employed as learning subjects. This study created such an awareness in high school students by using disposable diapers as an example of a daily necessity. In this lesson, each student was first asked to indicate a preference for either hydrophilic or hydrophobic lining for the diaper, and then to prepare two diapers using hydrophilic or hydrophobic lining,water-absorbent padding and backing.A Iarge percentage of studentsexpressed the common assumption that since hydrophilic materials were suitable for fabrics contacting the skin they were also suitable for the lining of diapers. However, after a measured quantity of water was poured onto the two diapers and the two linings were compared by touch, the students recognised their misconception. They also observed that the water absorption rate of commercial diapers was much faster than those of their own making, illustrating the absorption mechanism. Thus they learned that many aspects of science and technology taught in school, such as capillary action and super absorbent polymer to soak up large amounts of water, were employed in the production of disposable diapers which they had formerly regarded simply as paper and cotton pulp. This research should enable us to recognize the need to adopt as learning subjects objects in the daily livers of the learners.

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From 2001, teacher training in "Information Studies", a new subject area to be taught in Japanese senior high schools, will commence in universities. Since they have no previous learning experience, a curriculum of "Teaching Method of Information Studies" is important for pre-service teachers to acquire the required knowledge and skills for teaching this subject area. Based on the two-year tryout of the practical curricululm, we recommend the following strategies. First, a model lesson should be demonstrated in the early stages so as to provide pre-service teachers with a lesson image of "Information Studies". Second, they should analyze the relation between the descriptive Course of Study and the key concepts and typical ways of solving problem in Information and Communication Technology so that they can identify appropriate objectives, essential to "Information Studies." Finally, there should be guidance on how to pose tasks by which high school students are able to understand the significance of learning "Information Studies", and to development of teaching materials.

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Magara (1999) proposed a strategy named the Double Reasoning Method in order to rectify learners' misconceptions. In this study the author aimed to examine the beneficial effects of this method by using different learning materials in a science classes. The Double Reasoning Method was exercised as follows. At the first stage, learners were presented with reading material contained useful information to help them answer correctly a target problem in physics. At the second stage the target problem was set and learners were asked two kinds of questions. One question them to solve the problem on the basis of their intuition. Their answers were generally incorrect because they were based on misconception. The second required them to answer the question on the basis of information with which they had already been presented. In the latter case, their answers were generally correct. At the third stage, the result of the physics experiment was presented and learners came to know the correct answer. Subsequently, a transferable problem was set. Most students could solve it successfully. Thus they could rectify their misconceptions and the efficacy of this method was confirmed.

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The current status and problems of the group training course as a method of international cooperation in science education were discussed by reviewing the achievements of the group training course "Practice of Science Education" (1990-1999), which was organized by Hiroshima University and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Based on the evaluation of group training courses conducted for the past decade, the future development of such a course was considered as an effective tool to further international cooperation in the field of science education.

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