The Earth, the sun and the stars have fascinated humankind from prehistoric times. Great efforts have been made to understand their nature and to make use of their characteristics for improving the quality of life. Interests in geosciences and astronomy that have developed from these efforts continue to fascinate not only specialists but almost every person in any profession today, and represent a basic element of the science literacy of citizens in 21st century. This article summarizes our present understanding of (1) Earth's atmosphere and ocean, (2) the Earth's interior, (3) the sun and the solar system, and (4) stars and the universe. It is a summary of the report by the "Earth, Universe and Environment" Committee of the "Science Literacy for the 21st Century" Program. The text is structured as answers to 23 most frequently asked questions.

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This study examined the effect of teaching a relation figure and a line figure on 5^<th> graders' solving proportion problems. Thirty three students were taught how to draw a relation figure and a line figure from word problems and how to make word problems from those figures in the unit of "proportion". All lessons were planned based on a mathematics lesson with a scaffolding, therefore, the important contents were taught repeatedly every lesson. The results of a post-test showed that their performance was better than the results of some national tests; they also created various word proportion problems from a relation figure and a line figure.

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This study examined the effectiveness of a teaching method that purposefully shifted the role of scaffolding from the teacher to peers, and focused ideas to find an area at the phase of scaffolding every lesson of this unit. A fifth grade teacher and her students working on a unit on "areas of triangle and quadrilaterals" participated in the study. The teacher modeled the scaffolding method in the first half and the latter of the unit, and the students applied the method among themselves in order to find a variety of solutions to area problems. The results showed that students successfully implemented the scaffolding method, which resulted in improved performance on area problems as well as mastery of a wider range of solution methods at the end of the unit.

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Lately, in Japan many institutions of higher education have started teaching engineering ethics in their classes. In these classes students are mainly provided with ways of probing the causes of the industrial accidents and handling them. However, understanding "engineering ethics" is not easy for students, especially for high school students who have no job experiences. Therefore on the basis of "Moral Education" up to junior high school, we developed on "Engineers' Moral Education" program with an introduction of not only the view of an engineer but also from other human beings. We assume that students' ability to grasp the situation would help to develop their morality. For this reason we designed a material which had the students recognize the moral dilemma of an engineer, and also have a vicarious experience. As a result of participating in this program, students gained a more advanced knowledge of the way to grasp the situation. We implemented the lessons in such a way as to provide knowledge of the situation using e-learning material and give practice of making judgment under a moral dilemma using a questionnaire, as well as Instructional Activities Game (Matsuda, 2004) in this order, and were able to confirm the effectiveness of our program.

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This study is an analysis of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003. The study utilized data derived from the mathematics performance of eighth grade students; further, a questionnaire survey was also conducted. We conducted structural equation modeling to examine both the direct and indirect relationships between activities during lectures at school and students' scores. The results revealed that lectures that related the course content in mathematics to the students' daily lives did not affect their scores; at the same time, they improved the students' motivation to learn. On the other hand, lectures that require students to work on their problems independently, without guidance from teachers, enhanced the students' self-concept and affected their performance. In addition, we conducted a cluster analysis in order to perform a countrywise classification of both the students' scores and their attitudes toward mathematics. Finally, we found that the groups that took longer time to relate the content of the mathematics lectures to their daily lives obtained lower scores. The study concludes that teachers should use both lecture styles in a balanced manner in order to motivate students to learn mathematics and help them to improve their performance.

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This paper describes the concept of a Manga-based thinking method and discusses the results of the field tests of the method. A Manga-based thinking method is a method to encourage participants to scrutinize their presentation from the various viewpoints of related people. According to this method, learners are asked to represent the message of their presentation in the form of a Manga and then reflect on their messages by examining the Manga. It is expected that this method will support learners in grasping the social network of related people through envisioning all the related people's voices since Manga are comprised of spatially located actors who have their own words. The three field tests suggest that Manga-based thinking makes learners' thoughts more actor-oriented resulting in the method expanding learners' understanding about networks of related people and their presentations.

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In 2002, the guidelines concerning recombinant DNA experiments was renewed and now allows this experiment within a safety range at schools. It is said that the hands-on lab activity using the recombinant DNA experiment in high schools is very effective for understanding the basics of molecular biology, while making students interested in biotechnology and gene literacy education. Although it would be better for all students to experience, it, only a small number of student have a chance. We administered a questionnaire survey to teachers of biology and studied some cases carried out to popularize the recombinant DNA experiment. From these results, we investigated what is needed to make this experiment more popular in gene literacy education. The results of questionnaire survey showed that effective lessons mutually motivate teachers and students. Educational material kits make it easy for teachers to try and are useful for them. We know that is some good cooperation between school, university and administration, and therefore teacher motivation is very important. We conclude with 10 needs to popularize the recombinant DNA experiment; they are related in complex ways. It is important to carry out action continuously and see these things in the long-term.

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I have devised a method of analyzing the concentration change of a solution by changing the depth of the solution by the combination of a personal computer, a self-made throwing-type colorimeter, and a PIC-ADC adaptor. This method can give us the reaction rate, and in addition, the activated energy from the temperature dependence of the reaction rates. A teacher or a training assistant can make an experimental device within only a few hours. Because operation to use the spectrophotometer is not required at all, we can concentrate on the experiment, and ascertain the change in the color of the solution change gradually. This experimental device is useful to analyze the reaction rate, etc. An experimental example is the kinetics of a first-order reaction of zinc and iodine. The rate of this reaction was analyzed by means of checking the change of concentration of iodine from the reddish brown depth of the iodine solution, aided by this self-made instrument. The activated energy seen for this reaction was 21.0kJ/mol.

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