This study aims to research the establishment of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in the United Kingdom and its purpose. The study reveals three main points. First, the uptake of STEM subjects had been the focus of attention in the UK, and the shortage of people electing to pursue careers related to STEM had been recognized through several reports and recommendations; therefore, the government had long identified STEM education as a major priority at both school and higher education level. Second, the existence of support systems for teachers; the National STEM Centre and the schools’ STEM Network (STEMNET), has been established so as to ensure that STEM education is enhanced and enriched. Third, STEM education has had two important purposes; one is to develop STEM literacy for all citizens and the other is to provide specialized training for a future career for some students and to ensure a stable supply of specialists in STEM so as to be able to compete in the global market.

One of the problems of science communication in Japan is that it has not spread sufficiently among citizens. In order to disseminate science communication to the general public, the indifferent public is a key demographic. Therefore, the authors proposed design principles for a workshop aimed at the indifferent public, in which participants become scientific re-communicators, so that science and technology culture can infiltrate into the general public. Specifically, an everyday situation was tailored to be a scientific exploration space by setting familiar ‘daily life’ topics for participants. The level of skills as a re-communicator were then defined in order to evaluate the activities of the re-communicators. The results indicate that the participants acquired the skills required of a re-communicator and carried out communication activities. Feedback was obtained from the participants on whether they felt that scientific literacy was relevant to them and if they came to feel encouraged to re-communicate with their community. It was found that, through the workshop, they had more incentives to participate in the science and technology culture and to utilize scientific literacy in their daily lives and communities.

This paper points out some characteristics of the chemistry curriculum for the upper level of Gymnasium in Germany today, mainly through analysis of the areas of competence “Kommunikation” and “Bewertung/Reflexion” in the curriculum. These characteristics are as follows:

(1) Concerning competencies that should be developed: the kind of competencies showed a similar trend as that of the chemistry curriculum for the lower level of Gymnasium. These competencies move to a higher level by the use of highly specialized chemical terms and expressions, and more complex issues to be assessed. Additionally, development of competencies was expected to advance beyond the level of competencies that should be developed in the chemistry curriculum for the upper level of Gymnasium.

(2) Concerning the themes and contexts for developing students’ competencies: these were set based on realistic situations in students’ daily lives.

(3) Concerning assessment of the state of developing students’ competencies: resolving realistic issues and making an oral presentation about the results by students allowed the assessment of student’s competencies that cannot be assessed fully by written exams only.

In current high-school “Health and Physical Education” classes, medicine-related content has been enriched to help students understand self-medication.

Medicinal education that involves learning content in high school chemistry class is important for understanding the “proper use of medicine.” Accordingly, we developed a learning program for medicinal education in chemistry class utilizing enteric-coated aspirin as a learning item. Enteric-coated aspirin is designed to allow the tablet to pass through the stomach before dissolving in order to reduce upset stomach, a major side effect of aspirin. As the mechanism for reducing side effects is closely related to the content of chemistry class, the students may learn experimentally why enteric-coated aspirin dissolves in the small intestine, not the stomach.

Comparison of pre- and post-questionnaires revealed that students realized not only why the tablets must not be chewed or crushed but also the deep relevance of the content of chemistry class to daily life and society.

The purpose of this study is to obtain suggestions for enhancing teaching in technology education by analyzing teacher perceptions about acquiring “Technological Decision-Making.” A questionnaire was designed which comprised 30 items about acquiring “Technological Decision-Making” identified from a technology textbook, as well as from the perceptions of 181 technology teachers regarding the “necessity of learning” and “difficulty in teaching.” The results revealed a need to teach “Select the ways of communication on the Internet,” “Evaluate the ways of electric power generation,” and “Select unauthorized access prevention apparatuses.” Teaching and planning the topics of “Evaluate the management technologies of aquatic organisms” and “Select types of motor” were considered difficult by the technology teachers. Furthermore, a negative correlation existed between “necessity of learning” and “difficulty in teaching.” In addition, experienced technology teachers showed less need to learn and more difficulty in teaching “Technological Decision-Making” as compared to novice technology teachers.

The changes of gas, liquid and solid as the three states of matter can be explained by interpreting thermal motion and intermolecular force in text-books. However, experiments with regard to thermal motion and intermolecular force in senior high school have hardly been practiced, the author considers that learning about the property of molecular substance is important. In this article, experiments on changes in thermal motion and intermolecular force on the property of molecular substance will be demonstrated. Firstly, the change of volume in molecular substance is measured with the temperature change in relation to thermal motion of liquid. Secondly, the volume at the same weight of molecular substance is compared, and the volume of liquid in molecular substance is compared with that of solid. Thirdly, crystals of molecular substance are observed. Thermal motion and intermolecular force can be studied with interest through these experiments.