The purpose of this study was to clarify: 1) students' acceptance of major theories of evolution and 2) differences in acceptance according to the level of education (lower secondary, upper secondary, and university students). We used the questionnaire method. Subjects were shown a certain phenomenon of evolution and then shown four answers. Each of the answers was based upon a major theory of evolution (the theory of natural selection, the theory of the use-disuse and inheritance of acquired characteristics, the theory of orthogenesis, and the theory of saltation by mutation). Students responded to each question by marking a four-scale approval or disapproval answer sheet, with " 4" representing the strongest level of approval. Their responses were processed as an Approval-Disapproval Score. There were three questions, but one question dealt with the phenomena of obsolescence. The results of our study clearly showed that: 1) Approval of the theory of natural selection rose with the level of education, and there was a particularly high level of approval among university students. However, approval of the phenomena of obsolescence did not vary much with the level of education, and a low level of approval was also observed among university students. 2) Despite its inadequate state at present, the theory of the use-disuse and inheritance of acquired characteristics received a comparatively high level of approval. There was a particularly high level of approval among upper secondary students. 3) The theory of orthogenesis received higher approval among lower secondary students than among other students. 4) The theory of saltation by mutation received very low approval at all three educational levels. 5) In regard to the highest approval response (" 4 "), about 30-40 percent of the students' responses were consistent in every question. As many as 24.1 percent of university students consistently chose the theory of natural selection. Over 10 percent of students at every level consistently chose the theory of the use-disuse and inheritance of acquired characteristics.

The present author hypothesizes and analyzes a children's logic of proposition in judging whether or not propositions on the concepts of physics and chemistry are true. His main findings include: 1) when children try to judge whether or not propositions on concepts of physics and chemistry are true, some of them adopt a children's logic of proposition, except for two-valued logic; 2) there are instances in which the children's images of science and technology influence their judgment about the propositions ; and 3) children's experience and familiarity with electromotive toys and household electric appliances influence their judgment about the propositions.

The present author hypothesizes and analyzes a children's logic of proposition in judging whether or not propositions on the concepts of earth science are true. His main findings include: 1) when children try to judge whether or not propositions on concepts of earth science are true, some of them adopt a children's logic of proposition, except for two-valued logic; 2) there are instances in which the children's undifferentiated recognition of time and space influences their judgment about the propositions; 3) the use of technical terms about earth science, which have not been defined in the elementary school science textbooks in Japan, influences their judgment about the propositions; and 4) the children's future prospects for the phenomena and events in relation to earth science influence their judgment about the propositions.

Reversal film is used in order to estimate the activities of microorganisms in the soil visually because they corrode the emulsion gelatin layer of the reversal film, changing the color of the film. In this study, the method is used to estimate the activities of microorganisms semi-quan titatively and to analyze some components in the soil. The color intensity of the corroded reversal films is measured at red, green, blue, and white light sources with a simple and low-cost colorimeter. The reciprocal of the color intensity is plotted against each light source. Areas of the graph correspond to the respective corrosion levels of the films. The activities of microorganisms in the soil can be estimated with this improved method. The experiments also showed the correlation between areas of the graph and the amounts of organic compounds contained in the soil.