The establishment of "Rika" (Science) as a new subject was brought about by two phenomena: "synthesis" and "change of content." In order to make clear one of the causes of the appearance of "Rika" in the early Meiji Era, the relation between vocational education and science education is examined. In those days, the accumulation of capital was progressing. Then the number of vocational education subjects increased in the elementary school curriculum. The vocational education subjects developed whenever the laws of elementary school were amended. Furthermore the bureaucrats of the committee that examined the system of elementary school maintained that the content of science education should be changed to one based on the idea of vocational education. So the idea of vocational education was a strong influence on the elementary school curriculum in "Shogakko-rei" (Guidelines for Elementary School Education). We can conclude that the development of vocational education has changed the content of science education.

Children should practice authentic science m a community. This paper discusses constructing a community in the school laboratory and doing scientific experiments. Using the Kneading Board and synchronous CSCL experiment groups are intimately related. We confirmed that having the participants relate to each other becomes a resource and a setting of measurement standards in the whole class. So the whole class became a big community. And we confirmed that using such a method involves competition between experiment groups, securing of reliability, critical examination, making criteria, and using criteria. Using CSCL in the school laboratory leads to the creation of a community involved in scientific work.

Foreign science textbooks of lower secondary schools from the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Slovak, India, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and the U.S.A. were analyzed in regard to the treatment of atomic structure and ions. One finding is that atomic structure and ions are introduced at the ages of 13-14 in most countries, which is in contrast to the recent deletion of the concept of ions from the course of study for lower secondary schools in Japan. It was also found that what students learn about atoms and ions varies among countries: students learn about atoms as consisting of a nucleus and electrons, as consisting of protons, neutrons, and electrons, or as having an electron arrangement. Students also learn about ions as charged atoms, particles resulting from electron transfer between atoms, or atoms having a full outer shell. Ions are typically introduced as one of the basic particles following the structure of atoms. The periodic table of elements, which was removed from lower secondary school textbooks in Japan, is also introduced at 13-14 in most countries. It is concluded that both atomic structure and ions can be understood by lower secondary school students.

This research project examined teaching and learning tools that induce changes in the preconceptions of learners regarding the changes of state in water. As a result of microgenetic interactive analysis based on the qualitative analysis of TD (Transactive Discussion) of verbalization activity and behavior generated during the learning process, it was suggested that the following teaching-learning methods are useful in promoting conceptual changes. 1) While observing a demonstration experiment showing that a change of state occur in some substances (e.g. butane, alcohol) other than water, "cognitive conflicts" arise during the process of understanding the mechanism of the changes in the state of water as discrepancies appear between preconceptions and experimental results; moreover, changes in preconceptions are induced when the conflicts are resolved. At that time, the "learning tools" (e.g. tablet PC, paint software) served a valuable role as "cognitive tools." 2) A change is induced when "preconceptions" and "scientific concepts" are perceived as specific images and find correlation with one another, in a process where the "software for animation model" is introduced and the context of arguing the "visibility of the grounds of thought" develops.

Chemical quantitative analysis is becoming an important learning method in science and environmental education. Complex analytical equipment, however, is difficult to utilize because of school budgetary constraints. Due to this, several handmade analytical devices have been developed for learning by many teachers. I have also invented a handmade fluorometer which is made of inexpensive materials. The light source is a LED (395nm or 430nm). The detector is a solar battery, which is very popular, even for children. Subsequently, I introduced this new device in a practical science class in an upper secondary school. The students were asked to measure the content of Riboflavin, which is an important nutritive known as Vitamin B2, in a Vitamin tablet. The average content of Riboflavin measured by students was 14 mg per tablet. This is the same as the figure written on the package of the Vitamin tablets. The effectiveness of this new device was also investigated by analysis of questionnaires answered by students. The questionnaire focused on the following information: (1) the morale of students; (2) the understanding of the analytical method by students; and (3) the operational simplicity of this device. Most of the students gave positive answers in the questionnaire.

In order to conduct research on changes in teaching methods by science teachers based on the revision of the course of study, two groups of students were compared. One was in the fifth grade in 1989 and the eighth grade in 1992. The other was in the fifth grade in 2000 and the eighth grade in 2003. The frequency of science teaching/learning activities in the two groups was compared. First, the methodology of the lessons was examined. In the eighth grade, lessons in which textbooks had mainly been used have changed to lessons in which additional contents have also been taught, corresponding to supplementary and advanced study. The frequency of copying what was written on blackboards was in the eighth grade classes. Second, the development of student interest was described. It was found that the number of lessons in the eighth grade which related the study of science to everyday life was increased. That is emphasized in the present course of study. Third, experiments and observations, which are both emphasized in the present course of study, were examined. So far the teachers of both grades have tried to conduct more experiments by students and demonstrations by teachers. Even now, in the eighth grade, the frequency of experiments, demonstrations, and outdoor observations has increased. Concerning lessons related to everyday life and experiments and demonstrations, their frequency in the eighth grade has increased, and they were almost the same as the number in the fifth grade. It seems that the eighth-grade teachers have been trying to improve their lessons so as to be as effective as those of the fifth-grade teachers. However, no change was found in regard to the development of the students' intellectual curiosity. There was no significant change in the frequency of lessons considered "interesting." Also there was not any significant change in the ratio of students who liked science.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of 2.4 hours of lessons using "circulatory styled question-and-answer criticism learning" in teaching the basic operation of a gas burner in the first grade of secondary school. It was evaluated by analyzing the results of the performance test and the written examination immediately afterwards and then once again five months after the lessons, provided that students operated a gas burner five times in lessons within two months after the study project. In this case, the results were as follows: (1) Using "circulatory styled question-and-answer criticism learning" encourages the students, especially female students, to acquire the operational skill of a using a gas burner. And using this teaching method can help many students similarly acquire this skill. (2) Using this teaching method encourages students to acquire knowledge about the structure of a gas burner, and it encourages students to acquire knowledge about the method of operating a gas burner. The level of this knowledge is demonstrated by the fact that students can explain what they have learned in writing that is clearly understandable to other students.

In Lower Secondary Schools, the national Curriculum Standards Reform was implemented from 2002, and it contained the following paragraph: "Lower secondary schools will conduct more outdoor observations and exploratory activities. Students find it natural to do the observation and the experiment, and this purpose is added to the conventional basic policy' (The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, 1998). In this regard, outdoor observations have become necessary. However, this guideline is difficult to implement when the teachers do not have enough outdoor experience. Teachers with a background in the fields of geoscience and biology, which are outdoor sciences, have become necessary. However, the number of geoscience teachers in lower secondary schools is too low because they have not been given enough employment opportunities until now. Therefore, this study investigates the number of teachers with geoscience background in all of the 134 lower secondary schools (3095 teachers) in Osaka City, Japan. A questionnaire survey was conducted to which 27.1 % responded. The number of science teachers is around 11.9%, which is reasonable considering the total number of subjects. However, an anomaly is observed in the percentage of teachers in different fields of science (physics, chemistry, biology, and geoscience). The number of mathematics teachers is around 5.2%. The number of teachers with geoscience background is about only 0.6%, which should be raised to about 3% in order to keep it in balance with the percentages in other fields of science. This shows that there is an urgent need to provide more employment opportunities in lower secondary schools for applicants with a background in geoscience.

An early exposure program for upper secondary school students was introduced in the Faculty of Pharmacy, Meijo University in 2000 in order to develop interest in science education. Questionnaires were distributed to participants twice, in 2003 and 2004, in order to examine the effects of the program. In the 2004 questionnaires, more than 90% of the students who participated in Experiment 1 (Medical effects through the observation of expansion and contraction of an extracted intestinal tract from a guinea pig: 38 participants) and in Experiment 2 (Extraction of caffeine from popular foods such as coffee, green tea, or Coca Cola: 36 participants) answered that they were satisfied with the overall program. 68% of the participants in Experiment 1 and 61 % of the participants in Experiment 2 answered that they enjoyed the program. Moreover, 90% of the participants answered that the present program had increased their interest in chemistry, 30% of which answered that the program had increased their interest a great deal. It was found that 71 % of the applicants preparing for college entrance examinations had taken the examination for our university, and 60.5% of the applicants had taken the examination for our Faculty of Pharmacy in 2004. These findings suggest that the program promoted by our university is useful for developing interest in science education and in medical staff careers as well.