The appreciation of historical study is growing in science education. However the application of histories to science education is not so possitive, and less profitable. Historical cases are put in the science textbooks just like space fillers. The aim of science education is, in the first place, to encourage students to study science as their own interersts, then to lead their active learning and original thinking. Most of the present textbooks are written in a descriptive style of facts, which gives us the impression that the science is completed and there is nothing for it but to memorize every fact without any questions. But all scientific discoveries are attained through many trials and errors. Textbooks should reflect, more or less, this process. Here we discuss such a scientific approach with some historical examples of pneumatic chemistry, especially concerning the 18th century's discovery of some kinds of gaseous elements including oxygen, hydrogen and azote. To distinguish different kinds of gas is not so easy as to be seen in the textbooks. The recognition of gases, for one meaning as a state or the third state of matter, and for another meaning as the constituent of matter, i.e., the chemical element, was the last and crucial problem for the modernization of chemistry. Historical facts should be well examined in the historical context. Their easy introduction and secondary citation often give us the wrong image or understanding about science. This historical case study of science will be suggestive to know how is the creative process of scientific researches and how to apply it to our science teaching.

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Problems of First-stage Standerized Achievement Examination conducted in the period of 1979-1982 were analysed and the results were as follows ; (1) Rough classification of problems showed a relatively high percentage for wide-scope problems covering various areas. We welcome this trend for avoiding over-specialized problems. (2) Since the main purpose of the achievement test is to assess daily understanding of students, simple and non-twisted questions are desirable. Most of questions so far given seem to fulfil this propose. (3) The question-form has to be objective because the processing of enormous number of test-results inevitably depends upon the computer system. Of some forms of objective test, a multiple-choice form is considered most reliable for assessing student's understanding, but a true-false form has no merit. Questions of the latter form have shown a yearly decrease, but still survive. Questions of this form should not be adopted. (4) There have been the differences in difficulty-levels among problems of physics, chemistry, biology and geography. Being influenced by a difficulty factor, applicants for physics and chemistry were decreasing year by year. This trend should be improved in the near future. Problems of entrance examinations conducted by 30 national, 3 public and 9 private universities in the period of 1975〜1981 were analysed and the results were as follows. (1) A percentage test-items selected from contents of Chemistry II showed a sudden increase in 1979, the opening year of First-stage Standerized Achievement Examination, and has kept high level since then. (2) According to "Course of Study" published by the ministry of Education, problems given in 1978〜1981 were further classified into every section of the course to which they belong. The test-items selected from sections of "Oxidation and Reduction" and "Properties of Substances" in Chemistry I, and of "Chemical Equilibrium" and "Carbon Compounds" in Chemistry II, showed relatively high percentages. (3) Problems that seemed to be inadequate in our judgment were picked up by following bases; (i) Problems with vague of meaningless aims (ii) Problems without sufficient conditions to be given, (iii) Problems which assess a remembering ability only, (iv) Problems that exceed the scope and level of high school education, (v) Problems with too lengthy descriptions. We demonstrated inadequancy of these problems by giving typical examples of each group. (4) Problems of national and public universities and those of private universities given in 1981 were separately classified into three groups of reasonable, inadequate, and difficult problems in our judgment. A combined percentage of inadequate and difficult problems for national and public universities reached 24.5%, exceeding 18.2% for private universities.

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This paper is the basic study on caudal fin regeneration using killifish, an available teaching materials in secondary school science. The findings are concerring experiments on caudal fin regeneration of killifish us follows. 1) The regenerating speed changes with the amputation level or the time lapse after the amputation of the caudal fin of the killifish, MEDACA. 2) The blood coaguration generally occures near the amputation plane within 1 minute after the amputation. 3) The blood stream is observed in the regenerating area of the caudal fin about 3 days after the amputation. 4) Cuboidal cells in the epithelium arrange into one layer, and osteoblasts appear to migrate to the inside of the cuboidal cells and to form a fin ray dermal bone 2 to 3 days after the amputation of the caudal fin. The killifish, MEDACA, is very useful as an experimental animal for the study of the regeneration since the fin rays and the blood stream can be easily observed microscopically and the period from the amputation to the complete recovery is relatively short. Some teaching materials for the secondary school science are producible from the results of this fin ray regeneration. Additionally, the application of this experiments for the secondary school science is also considered.

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It was in the latter half of 19th century that science began to be introduced into school education in Britain. There was, however, a strong tendency to neglect science as not having the intellectual value. Therefore, it took a good deal of effort for a lot of people to have it accepted as a school subject. Among those, H.Spencer, T.Huxley, H.E.Armstrong played an important role, and especially the work of Armstrong is worthy of notice. This article compares the views on science education by Spencer and Huxley with the view by Armstrong and clarifies the role which Armstrong's view played. The greatest contribution by Armstrong was to bring both the modern education, established by Rousseau and Pestalozzi, which was based on self-activities by children and the modern scientific method based on the experimental research in the laboratory into the unified form of 'Laboratory Teaching' and to establish the contemporary structure of science education in Britain.

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