The purpose of this research is to verify hydroponic culture test under nutrient deficiency of Fast plants (Brassica rapa) to make students unde rstand nutrient necessa ry for plants, and whether experiment using "Aiterrarium" can be executed at upper secondary school. The remotely-controlled Aiterrarium is an indoor gardening system in which the fluorescent lighting, temperature, humidity, soil water content, and water supply is all controlled via the internet. The attached web camera can monitor the growing process from anywhere via the internet. As a result of practice in upper secondary school, the students were able to visually observe the nutrient deficiency disease, and understand that the nourishment necessary for the plant was the inorganic salt dissolved in water. It is necessary for the plant as nourishment during the weekend and summer vacation, etc., it is very effective as the equipment that can support long-term cultivation of the plant, and can expect the effect as one way that expands the possibility of the study support and a new learning system, since Aiterrarium allows us to freely control not only inspection and the preservation of a real-time image, but also sprinkling water and the temperature management, etc.

In this study, four perspectives and concrete instructional strategies are clarified through the analysis of IDEAS project. The perspectives and strategies are needed to introduce argument into science classrooms. The perspectives consist of "Understanding of importance of argument", "Understanding of learning environments", "Understanding of structure of learning tasks" and "Understanding of teaching skills". Furthermore, some strategies are analyzed from points of three instructional settings: 1) introducing argument, 2) developing argument and 3) evaluating argument. These strategies are as follows. 1) In the first setting, the strategies are "introducing contents of argument to students in easier teams", "instructing students in the requirement of argument explicitly" and "providing the appropriate tasks for promoting argument". 2) In the second setting, the strategies are "providing students resources for constructing argument" and "introducing roleplaying in the classroom". 3) In the third setting, the strategies are "evaluating the form of argument" and "evaluating the quality of argument".

Bioethics relates to problems of every species of lives as well as human life in nature and social environments. The importance of "experiential learning" and the necessity of guidance about the "preciousness of life" have been proposed by many researchers in science education. However, almost all students have no experience of animal dissection, because description of animal dissection has been decreasing in school science in recent years. In this study, we investigate students' thought on dissection, scientific concepts, and their esteem for life through classes of "fish dissection" at a department of education in a university lecture, and consider the educational significance of animal dissection. The results of the study are as follows: A questionnaire to students after the class of "fish dissection" revealed the following facts; First, most of the students answered that it was good to practice fish dissection. Secondly, they had a lot of impressions or notions on life and seemed to realize the "preciousness of life". Therefore, "animal dissection" occupies a critical position in training of elementary school teachers.

This paper presents promotion of students' scientific understanding of "images with a convex lens" in secondary science classes through the generation and evaluation of analogies. Further, the effects of instructions that emphasize "transformation" as a methodological principle for generating and using analogies are explored. Questionnaires were used for examining these aspects. Consequently, the results revealed the points listed below. (1) When students tried to solve a novel problem, they generated an analogy spontaneously. However, the base case of this analogy was familiar to the students, and from a scientific point of view, it was a specific case in the science of lenses. In addition. they did not understand the case enough to solve the problem. There was a difference in the content of the derived conclusions, but this analogical reasoning process was common to them. (2) Given the situation that students had not learned the general principle of images with convex lenses, they used an individual case as a model of problem solving for images with convex lenses. In this situation, it was found that analogies were generated through "transformation," which is considered a cognitive process that modifies the original case, thereby changing one or more features that were previously assumed to be fixed, and finally, identifies the other case. (3) "What-if analysis" is a technique for making speculations about or changing one or more of the properties or factors associated with the base case/target case of an analogy. What-if analysis as a teaching strategy was effective in evaluating the analogies generated by the students. (4) It was suggested that this process of learning science, wherein students generate and evaluate analogies, and learn concept of image point promote the generalization or application of learning content; further, both an understanding of the base case and the target case of the analogies improved.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the transformation of college students' view of the competency of science teachers during year round participation in classroom situation. Analyzing the questionnaire data from students, the following points became clear. 1. Students' view of the competency of science teachers has become enriched through the participation in the classroom situation. Especially in class participation prior to the student teaching, raising of awareness of skills for the classroom setting was observed. 2. After the student teaching, students have recognized the need for teaching that is suitable for the characteristics of each class. 3. Key elements of students' view of competency of science teachers were: (1) competence for science teaching. (2) competence of understanding about children and building a relationship of mutual trust.

In Japanese kindergartens, children encounter various living things such as animals and insects. Even though insects are close to children's lives, they live only short period of time, the number tends to be fewer, or it is difficult to observe metamorphoses. As a solution to problems, silkworms are easy to observe such changes with larger quantity, while they are the oldest teaching material in Japanese kindergartens. With such reasons. this study tries to examine the meaning of silkworms as a teaching material, and consider to a relation with kindergarten and Elementary School 654 five-year-old children from 2 cohorts of 2 kindergartens participated in this study. The researcher selected 265 episodes of raising silkworms from 32,126 teacher's observation episodes. The episodes were analyzed using the KJ (Kawakita Jiro) method. The results showed that five main categories "interactions with silkworms", "interactions with friends and teachers", "noticing silkworms", and "learning about silkworms from picture books". The following points are figured out from the analysis: 1) Aroused children's interest in silkworms though interactions with friends and teachers. 2) Compared to other insects, silkworms can be touched easily by children at different stages of their growth. 3) Metamorphoses of silkworms are apparent and show various forms, and thus there are more chances for children to notice features and changes as insects. 4) Raising silkworms are regarded as productive activities since they can produce silk thread. 5) Silkworm's picture books are available for children. so children's activities can be connected to their inquiry. The meaning of silkworms as a teaching material in kindergarten was emphasized by these results as well as its possibilities to be connected to the early child education. Also. other points of significance and challenges of raising silkworms as a teaching material were discussed in this study.

In this study, we developed and practiced teaching materials that can lead to learning that involves experiments and observations in "science and technology and human beings" as the last unit of the first field of lower secondary school.lessons. The teaching materials that we have developed include Peltier device, and. A we have developed a three-wheeled self-made vehicle that is run by Peltier cells, which are constituted by safe and inexpensive materials, powered by electric energy generated by Peltier device to allow children to easily make experiments and observations. As a result of such lessons practiced with these teaching materials, children conducted learning activities to apply various ideas to Peltier device and the three-wheeled vehicle to make the vehicle run faster, and it has been clarified that children learn to recognize the necessity to promote harmony between their living environment and scientific technology through such activities.

In this study, we investigated and analyzed how well the elementary school teachers could identify the insects appearing in the song of "Mushi no koe", and also when and how they recognized the insects first. As a result, the following 6 points were clarified. 1. It was difficult for the teachers to identify the insects of "Mushi no koe" by observing their figures except "Teleogryllus emma" and "Meloimorpha japonica". Also, it was difficult to identify all the insects by listening to their chirp sounds. 2. There were no significant differences in the total scores by observing the figures between the male and female teachers. Also, there were no significant differences by listening to their chirp sounds. 3. There was almost no correlation between the teacher ages and the total scores by both observing the figures and listening to their chirp sounds. 4. There was a slight correlation between the scores of how the teachers were interested in the insects in childhood and the total scores by observing the figures. By contrast, there was almost no correlation between the ones and the total scores by listening to the chirp sounds. 5. The teachers knew Cricket "Gryllidae" in elementary school or before entering elementary school from parents or someone close. They were tough when they found and caught the crickets in the garden or places in the grass. 6. The teachers knew "Meloimorpha japonica" in elementary school from parents or someone close mostly. They found breeding "Meloimorpha japonica", not by catching and finding in nature.

The aim of this study is to show the features of Science Education at Lower Secondary School in Victoria, Australia, through analyzing formulated curriculum at national and state level and real classes. At the time, we dealt with the study of Ecosystems and analyzed how curriculum is reflected in real classes, how teachers interpret formulated curriculum and how they make and develop classes. As a result, in Victoria, teachers have tried to maintain the elemental national framework and make curriculum that responds to actual conditions of state, and school, flexibly. In addition, in the class of ecosystem, teachers have aimed to learn and develop science knowledge and skill of that science at work. As for the sustainability of education, the teacher recognizes that it's important to develop environment-conscious citizenship, to make students develop understanding about environmental problems, and to find the solutions.

The purposes of this study were to try to make students exercise problem formulation that led to acquirement of knowledge in science and to foster their ability to think and to express themselves. Second grade science learners in a lower secondary school created an open-ended question and modified it through mutual moderation. It was found that the effectiveness of this method in this class on thought and expressiveness were more meaningful than in the ones that didn't have the exercise. Moreover, most of the learners answered affirmatively that they could enhance knowledge use and scientific thinking after the class.

In this research, the classes concerning about 'How to solve the problems' for fifth grade are focused on, and every scenes where learners are considering is analyzed by using the method of IRF sequence. These classes are conducted by teachers who do not major in science. Referring to the method of IRE sequence developed by Mehan, H, this research is done by changing Evaluation category to Feedback/Follow-up. The questions such as process elicitation and metaprocess elicitation are used as Initiation in science classes. Through these questions, scientific thought of learners is deepened. As one of the results of tis research, teachers question learners by shifting the category of Initiation as the strategy for making learners consider deeply, and repeat elicitation efficiently as Feedback/Follow-up. What is remarkable here is teachers never use metaprocess elicitation though they often use process elicitation as Initiation. It means they ask learners their opinions, interpretations, and processes. Instructions and calling on students are mostly used as Initiation and sanction is mostly used as Feedback/Follow-up. There are many teachers who do not specialize in science class, and the various kinds of problems are pointed out in this field. In science classes conducted by these teachers, they try to change the quality of questions. It is figured out, however, that the important thing is teachers decrease instructions to learners and use questions of meta process elicitation.

We counted the number of end users taught by gatekeepers and the number of gatekeepers who taught end users. We analyzed the issues on whether those students were the students of the same group, and on whether it was the students of a different group. We analyzed the issues on whether those students were the same sexes, and on whether they were opposite sexes. In this research, we observed first level, second level, and third level lower secondary school science class students. In the class, the student collected information for the achievement of the problem while moving freely. The following points were noted. 1. The different group has many relations of gate keepers and end users. 2. The relations of gatekeepers and end users were not influenced by sex. This results show that the relations of gatekeepers and end users in class develop regardless of man and woman in a group, and also develop regardless of man and woman between a group and the groups. Therefore, we do not have to do much consideration in group formation and gender by trying a class to show the relations of gatekeepers and end users.

In the "dissolution" unit for the first year of lower secondary school, much research was conducted about recognition of particle models during guidance. This is practical research which improved educational guidance based on the actual status of students measured by the research. If we on ly presented the explanation about particles in a text book, the number of students who were able to explain the particle model in a water solution was about half. It can be assumed that many students did not understand the existence of particles in a water solution. After learning the size, mass and characteristics of particles in a water solution, students recognized the existence of particles in a water solution and became able to explain particle models. However, half of the students did not distinguish visible grains of sugar and the minimum grains in a water solution which cannot be broken down and expressed both of them by using the same "○" symbols. Then, we gave guidance about handling of particle models together with learning of size, mass and characteristics of particles in a water solution. As a result, about 70% of the students became able to express correct particle models. According to the above, it was pointed out that the learning of the existence and characteristics of molecule level particles as well as learning how to apply particle models was required for scientific understanding of particle models. On the other hand, there were students who questioned about replacing in visible particles with models and therefore, how to give guidance to them is another challenge.

In this study, by focusing on fraction representations of a force at a point of effort or loading point, we developed a method that can be used to teach elementary school students to quantitatively express the response of a scaled lever at the loading point accurately. We also evaluated the effectiveness of the method. The study clarified the following two points: (1) Scale on the lever make it easier to quantify the lever response at the loading point (i.e., to represent the response in terms of a fraction). (2) The method for teaching fraction representation of the lever response is effective in helping students understand quantitative expressions and qualitative scales (weighted and lightened responses).

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions and effects of using the relational chart of core knowledge. Science teachers (N=58) completed a questionnaire that asked about the use of relational chart. Forty-six junior high school students studied the topic about changes in physical state of matter using the relational chart in lessons that were extended to six hours, and their understanding was evaluated both before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the lessons. We obtained the following three results: 1. Almost all teachers admitted that using the relational chart was beneficial in improving their science lessons. 2. Junior high school students who studied using the relational chart realized that the topic of changes of state was connected with the particle model of matter. 3. The post-test showed that more than 60% of the junior high school students tried to explain the advanced task by using the particle model of matter.

For science classes of the second school year in lower secondary school, teaching practice was designed to instruct students in "Chemical change, atom, and molecules" using an experiment related to the digestion of proteins and lipids of "Animals' bodies and their functions", the preceding unit. Results of analyses of a questionnaire survey clarified the following: (1) The estimation that "I was able to understand that the digestion was a chemical change" was given by 76.8% of the students, and 93.4% of them estimated that "I was able to understand that the digestion was done by the digestive solution (digestive enzyme) working". (2) In the result of comparing the concept maps, "Digestion occurs only in the stomach" was stated by 52.9% of students before the teaching practice. After the teaching practice, 67.1% of them had come to recognize that "Digestion occurs with a digestive solution (digestive enzyme)". In addition, 57.9% of them linked "Digestion" and "Decomposition" while 25.0% of them linked "Digestion" and "Chemical change". (3) As an improvement plan, it was entirely evaluated effective as for the simplification of the capacity of the impact testing machine and the instruction of the experiment method. However, many respondents who gave negative answers about the "Handiness of the experiment method and the operation" were probably students who had taken charge of the experiment on lipids. (4) To avoid the influence of practice teaching, the unit related to the current was studied after a digestive unit, and before the unit of the chemical change was studied. Therefore, there was a time gap between the study of digestion and that of chemical change. Students gave positive evaluations of a review of digestion. However, some also responded that students should learn continuously about the digestion experiment and the chemical change of the protein and lipid. (5) Many students wanted to experiment on both the protein and lipid. but securing the time to experiment on both was difficult.

A science lesson using a familiar music instrument was developed and practiced in the lower secondary school, The lesson consisted of investigating the mechanism of a Keyboard Harmonica by disassembling it. This investigation of a musical instrument that most students had used regularly excited their intellectual curiosity. Noticing the scientific devices included inside the Keyboard Harmonica helped students feel the benefits of the study of science for real life. Lessons in which students study the mechanism of an object by disassembling it help them strengthening their logical thinking power. On the questionnaire given at the end of the lesson, many students reported that they were impressed by the freshness of the lesson, that the lesson was interesting, and that the lesson was easy to understand.