In this study, the types of teaching methods and strategies necessary to change the students' present understanding of solutions into a scientific concept are addressed, based on experimental teaching methods. To improve the teaching of solutions, ( 1) the concept of particles and (2) poster making like that used in model teaching methods such as CLIS were introduced. Based on these, experimental classes were conducted in order to observe the changes in the students' learning process of solutions. The following are the results : 1 . The advantage of the introduction of particles is that students can easily grasp the concept of solution as an image. This helps students form a more scientific concept of solutions. 2 . Poster making proved to be visually helpful for students to deepen their understanding of solution while they were forming images and modeling the phenomenon. Furthermore, it helped them re-evaluate their own understanding of what a solution is, through interaction with other students.

We developed concept mapping software to reconstruct learning processes. The functional features of the software are that a learner can (a) play back all the creation processes of his/her concept map and (b) improve his/her concept map anytime. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability and usefulness of the software through designing 5th grade science lessons. These lessons were designed to teach how matter dissolves in water. First, in the questionnaire, 39 students of two classes were asked to evaluate the convenience of the software's user interface, the effectiveness of its functions, and its usability in lessons. Most students gave positive evaluations of the software for various reasons. Second, two teachers of the classes were asked in individual interviews to evaluate the software for students and teachers. The teachers noted the convenience of the user interface for students and the effectiveness of the playback function for both students and teachers. Third, we applied interaction analysis with video technology to the learning processes of one group of students using the playback function of the software, and we found that it contributed to the student's understanding of the solution. After consideration of these results, we discuss evaluation of the software and future work on the project.

The inside pressure of an air gun is tremendously increased when it's fired. We measured the critical pressure necessary to fire a projectile and found that the critical pressure in the case of rapidly increased inner pressure was higher than in the case of gradually increased pressure. We also found that the dependence variable on the inner diameter of a barrel differed in the two cases. Experimental results suggest that friction, which does not appear in the case of gradually increased pressure, increases the inner pressure exerted on projectiles.

A combination of different viewpoints is important to understand celestial phenomena. The authors developed an educational tool which supports the visual cognition of celestial phenomena by use of a terrestrial globe and a CCD camera. The tool was found very useful and effective in practice. The combination of direct observation and the simulation created by this tool depends on the student's directional cognition ability on the globe. Thus it was necessary for the authors to investigate the ability of students in regard to the cognition and the determination of direction. The survey has shown that less than half of the students were able to determine the direction on the globe correctly. In order to improve this situation, a strategy of improving the directional cognition of the students was planned. By use of the new educational tool with this strategy, students obtained a new skill of combining the viewpoint from the earth with that from outer space into a better understanding of celestial phenomena.

Today, when we consider science education and research, we can see that it is being developed around the schema theory in recognition psychology. But brain structure schema has not developed sufficiently, so we must increase the pace of research into the brain. Noninvasive brain wave monitoring equipment has been developed that makes it easy to conduct research into brain activity. While doctors make use of brain waves, they are unable to apply the study of brain waves to the recognition field of education research. More specifically, we have not done research into the teaching and learning processes and, specifically, into how students interact in a debate. We are unable to clarify what is being measured through brain waves. So we have focused on locations in the brain as they relate to thinking and motor skills, by measuring brain waves of subjects engaged in a debate about science.