The purpose of this research was to find out whether students’ learning of “amount per unit quantity” in elementary 5th grade mathematics affects their comprehension of “material density” in lower secondary school science. The results of the problem on “amount per unit quantity” in the national assessment of academic ability and survey on learning situations, and the results of the problems of “material density” in lower secondary school science were compared. As a result, the learning of “amount per unit quantity” in elementary 5th grade mathematics turned out to be in fact the readiness of the learning of “material density” in lower secondary school science. However, only a half of the elementary school students comprehended the concept of “amount per unit quantity” and were able to formularize it. Therefore, our results confirm that most of the elementary school students who understand “amount per unit quantity” in elementary school mathematics are well-prepared for solving the “material density” problems in lower secondary school science.

The authors consider that the interest of students in chemical experiments is caused strongly by observing changes in chemical reactions. Three teaching materials for chemical reactions were treated as a microscale experiment. Firstly, a semipermeable membrane was apt to be broken according to the quality of the chemical substance. Secondly, the action of hydrogen ions, hydroxide ions and iodide ions were each recognized from a change of the aqueous solution by electrolysis of potassium nitrate and potassium iodide. Thirdly, the complex of copper and glycine was produced as a blue needle crystal on the copper plate by critical production condition, and was identified as cis-bis glycinato copper (II) by infrared spectroscopy.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of environmental and affective factors on mathematical literacy by analyzing the PISA 2012 Japanese dataset. The data were analyzed by multilevel structural equation modeling at both school and student levels. It was found that: (a) At both levels, student-teacher relations were positively related to mathematical literacy, mediated by affective factors; (b) mathematical teacher support was positively related to mathematical literacy, mediated by self-efficacy only at the student level; (c) self-concept was positively related to mathematical literacy, mediated by self-efficacy and math anxiety only at the student level; (d) math anxiety was shown to have a negative effect on mathematical literacy at the student level; (e) self-efficacy was shown to have a large positive effect on mathematical literacy at both levels. These results suggest that improving student-teacher relations indirectly promotes better mathematical literacy via self-efficacy.

A hand-made ultraviolet region reflectometer was made to support the learning of ultraviolet rays, which is mainly studied in high school. The purpose of this hand-made ultraviolet region reflectometer is to enable accurate and quantitative measurement of UV reflectance. A polyvinyl chloride (PVC) end cap was used for the main body, a 365 nm LED was used as the light source, and a photodiode (PD) for ultraviolet region as a detector.

Non-fluorescent paper was examined as a reference instead of the standard diffuse reflector so that it would be easier to use in class, and it was confirmed that non-fluorescent paper can indeed be used as a reference.

The cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae) was used as the experimental material. The cabbage white butterfly is famous for recognizing males and females by actively using near-ultraviolet rays. The hand-made ultraviolet region reflectometer was used to measure the anterior and posterior wings, and the dorsal and ventral sides of males and females, respectively, and quantitatively compare the differences in reflectance.

As a result, the reflectance of the female wing was higher than that of the male wing in all parts, as in the previous study, and it was found that the value measured by this hand-made ultraviolet region reflectometer had a high correlation with the result obtained by a commercially available spectral reflectometer.

The hand-made ultraviolet region reflectometer can thus be used as a learning material to support the learning of ultraviolet rays, and can also be used for individual experiments by students. This learning material is easy to handle, inexpensive to produce, and accurate. It is a teaching material that is expected to support learning not only ultraviolet rays, but also for scientific inquiry learning with SSH.

The research activities that scientists perform routinely were analyzed and divided into stages. The research process of inquiry-based science in school was developed on the basis of the results of the analysis of scientists’ research activities. Two possible approaches were considered in the research process of inquiry-based science. Pathway 1 starts from the first stage of the inquiry-based science, which is the stage of having interest, curiosity or questioning. Pathway 2 starts just from the stage of defining the problem after presentation of a problem to students from a teacher or an advisor. Pathways 1 and 2 are the same after the problem defining stage, because a concrete inquiry activity starts after defining the problem. The main stages after defining the problem are developing a strategy for problem solving, observations or experiments, summarization of results, discussion and reaching conclusion. The scientific ability to be developed at each stage of the inquiry-based science was defined on the basis of the activities of researchers at the corresponding stage of scientific research. The activity at each stage was analyzed and defined as “Science Activity” and “Remarks on the Activity” and the results were summarized.

The purpose of this study is to reveal Lakatos’s theory of generating mathematical knowledge and consider its application to school mathematics. The logic of mathematical discovery (Lakatos, 1976) has been referred to in mathematics education research to achieve dynamic learning of proof and proving. While previous studies focused on the aspects of conjecturing, proving, refuting, and generating mathematical knowledge, this study especially focuses on the aspects of constructing and refining mathematical definitions. I analyzed Lakatos’s Ph.D. dissertation (Lakatos, 1961), focusing on heuristic rules. Five phases of generating mathematical knowledge through proofs and refutations were specified. These phases include conjecturing, proving, refuting, refining the conjecture using the method of lemma-incorporation or deductive guessing, and formulating proof-generated definitions. Based on these phases, I presented an imaginary student’s activity to refine a zero-definition of a polygon to proof-generated definitions in secondary school mathematics. The activity has a two-fold educational significance: realization of mathematics learning, in which mathematical definitions play a crucial role; and a change of students’ absolute and solid views of mathematical definitions. Lastly, I discuss some matters in order to realize the activity in secondary school mathematics classrooms.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects of displaying the cheetah’s species-specific high-speed running behavior on visitors to the exhibition. It also explored the factors that motivate visitors to visit the exhibit and keep them there. A questionnaire was sent to 347 visitors to the exhibition, and the free-text responses were subjected to a quantitative text analysis. In order to understand the overall experience of visitors to the exhibition, an exhibition experience type was developed. The evaluation of the exhibition, the motivation to visit, and the factors that lead to continuous visits were examined in relation to the experience of visiting the exhibition, using satisfaction, willingness to visit, willingness to visit again, and number of visits as indicators. The results suggest that esthetic and praise experiences have a significant effect on the value placed on them by visitors. These experiences also suggest that they are related to the motivation to visit the exhibition and the number of visits.

Although the reflection of the air column vibration at the open end of a tube is considered to be an important process for the resonance of the air column, the mechanism of the reflection is not fully understood. In a previous study conducted by the authors, the air column vibration was visualized by computer simulation, and concentric waves were seen propagating from the corner part of the open end, which is supposed to be related to the mechanism of the reflection. In the present study, a direct observation of the reflection was attempted in order to confirm the validity of the computer simulation. Specifically, optical observation of the sound field around the open end on vibrating the air column was performed using the Schlieren method. As a result, the concentric waves formed at the corner part of the open end were shown in the Schlieren images. According to this study, the findings derived from the computer simulation has been supported by Schlieren images and it is suggested that the Schlieren method could be an effective way to study the reflection of the air column vibration at the open end of a tube.