The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the effect of learning "Fermat's Principle" for the lower secondary school students. The results of this investigation revealed the following points. 1) It is not difficult for students to learn "Fermat's Principle" on the basis of the way of thinking that light advances in shortest time. There are a lot of students who felt interesting and motivated to learn "Fermat's Principle". 2) To teach students "Fermat's Principle" is very efficient in terms of correctly solving the problem of "from air into water" and the problem of "from in water to air" in the case of refraction of light. 3) About 30% of the students who had learned "Fermat's Principle" played a central role to explain the reason of the phenomenon of refraction of light by means of "Fermat's Principle". Scholastic attainments of the students who had answered based on the "Fermat's Principle" were not necessarily high. Therefore, it can be said that it is one of the most effective ways to have the lower secondary school students promote their comprehension of basic concept concerning science by teaching "Fermat's Principle".

The energy concept is regarded as one of four main concepts from elementary to secondary school levels at the newly revised Course of Studies in Japan. However it was difficult to teach the energy concept by using the word "energy" in the elementary school, because the concept was first introduced in the 3rd grade of the junior high school. On the other hand, the concept was introduced in lower grade in the elementary school in the U.S. In this study, we analyzed the way that the energy concept was introduced in the elementary school, based on the textbooks and teacher's guidebooks. As a consequence, the following findings were obtained: (1) The energy concept and the definition were introduced in the lower grade of the elementary school, according to National Science Education Standards and states' standards, intuitive understandable subject matters for children, of light, heat, sound. (2) The definition of "energy", preservation of energy, its various forms, its transfer, potential energy and kinetic energy were taught spirally after 3rd grade. (3) The teacher's guidebooks proposed the seven viewpoints for teaching energy in elementary school, and the successful strategy to meet the standard of energy instruction by examples of questions, etc.

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, many students had no experience of development of animal at elementary, lower secondary and high school. In this study, we investigated students' thought on development, scientific concepts, and their esteem for life through classes of "development of animal" at a department of education in a basic subject college lecture, and considered the educational significance of development of animal. The results of the study are as follows: A questionnaire to students after the class of "develop of animal" reveals the following facts. Firstly, almost students answered that it was good to practice development of animal. Secondly, they had a lot of impressions or notions on life and seemed to realize the "preciousness of life". Therefore, "development of animal" occupies a critical position at a Department of Nursing.

Students' satisfaction to the subject `Kadai-Kenkyu (theme research)' and primary factors affecting their satisfaction and continuation of further research were examined in a high school, which was designated as a 'Super Science High School'. The results of analysis exhibited that the following instructions were effective to enhance students' satisfaction to the subject. (1) The instruction that allows a student to think that a research obtained excellent results. (2) The instruction that allows a student to think that a research theme was what he/she wished. (3) The instruction that allows a student to think that teacher's instruction was good. The results also exhibited that the following instructions were effective to enhance students' motivation to continue further researches. (1) The instruction that allows a student to think that a research theme was what he/she wished. (2) The instruction that allows a student to think that a research enhanced his/her interest in science and science technology. (3) The instruction that allows a student to think that the theme research was important subject for him/her. Based on these results, an instruction model was developed for theme research to enhance students' satisfaction and motivation to continue researches. The model includes explanations of the importance of the subject, of the perspective of a research theme and of the academic significance of research results in addition to the general instruction for scientific research.

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the effect of authentic learning in science classes on the understanding of scientific knowledge. We reviewed preceding studies on authentic learning and identified a framework to design science classes. To verify whether the understanding of scientific knowledge was enriched, the classes based on the framework were conducted for 161 elementary school students (6th grade) on study of "burning". As a result of this study, the understanding of scientific knowledge was enriched through the authentic learning in science classes. And we came to the conclusion that there was feasibility in the framework.

When students did experiments, we prepared ideal numbers sheets for this research. Students were allowed to refer to the sheets freely. And we analyzed students' way of learning in the class. We conducted analysis using ideal numbers sheets situation, purpose, effect, and necessity as points of view. As a result we got following things. Students used the sheets positively, but they often used them after the experiment. And they didn't use them from the beginning. Students used the sheets in order to confirm whether their results were right or not. Students used the sheets to confirm. And when the number was wrong, they did the experiment again. Students felt that using the sheets removed their uneasiness. And they think it is easy to learn. Students think using the sheets is good. When they compare ideal numbers and measurement numbers, they can confirm numbers. And they can do experiments again. When the number is correct, they keep studying.

By the government guidelines for teaching "the Course of Study" change of lower secondary and upper secondary school, a new teaching unit "Creature Transition and Evolution" was added in lower secondary school science, and "Structure of Creature Evolution Process" was directed in upper secondary school biology. Currently, developing teaching materials in lower secondary and upper secondary school has been a considerable pressing issue. Therefore, we conducted a basic research on the evolution by using familiar Brachypterous grasshopper "Parapodisma setouchiensis". As a result, the character of color was specialized by geographic isolation border called abu river, and the smaller its body size gets, the higher the living altitude becomes. Accordingly, this species were considered to be effective in the studies regarding geographic variation, geographic isolation, speciation, adaptation and natural selection.

There have been no empirical researches discussing the changes of school student consciousness by breeding and observing both insects with and without the pupal stage from the egg stage to the adult stage. Therefore, in this research, we selected emma crickets "Teleogryllus emma" as the non-pupal insect and white cabbage butterflies "Pieris rapae crucivora" as the pupal insect. By breeding and observing these two species at once, we conducted analysis and speculation based on the results from the student comments, observation records and questionnaire researches. As a result, changes of viewpoint and consciousness to creatures were found among the students in the processes during breeding and observing. Also, as it was clarified that the variation of scores was found insect by insect in the aspects of school student's affection and learning enthusiasm, the educational effectiveness through that experiment was not necessarily the same. We discussed the meaning of breeding and observing emma crickets by using the knowledge of this research. Then, we found that the students could become kinder to creatures and additionally recognize their own consciousness changes by themselves.

With the Japanese course of study for elementary schools revised, "Use of Electricity" was introduced as a new teaching unit for the grade 6. The course of study with science version exposition by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology includes an instance for the lighting time comparison between an LED and a miniature bulb connected with charged capacitors. By investigating the description contents of textbooks and teacher's manuals and also based on the makeup examination results for the teaching material experimentation, the following three things were clarified. 1. A capacitor charged by a hand generator did not activate an LED and a miniature bulb sometimes. Especially, an LED did not often light in the experiment in the procedure according to textbooks and teacher's manuals. 2. There was a possibility that the way to finish a generator might affect the result in the case of the experiment which is carried on at the rotation speed of lighting started. 3. There were some textbooks or teacher's manuals which did not describe how to keep a hand generator at a constant speed, how to finish after being charged, how to judge lighting up and out and confirmation matters of preliminary experiment. Therefore, we studied and suggested a preliminary experiment method to investigate conditions such as hand generator rotation speed and number for an LED and a miniature bulb lighted by a charged capacitor. Based on the study, in the practical training regarding preliminary experiment methods for teachers of elementary school, the study contents and the proposed preliminary experiment methods were evaluated well to be effective by the attended teachers.

A website to aid identification of wildflowers is designed to support plant observation activities in the schoolyard. Elementary and lower secondary school teachers were given tests for recognizing wildflower characteristics to help the designing of the site. The result of these tests shows three major causes of misidentification of plant names: 1) incorrect identification of homologous organs; e.g., incorrect identification of a colored leaf as a petal or a compound leaf as several simple leaves. 2) incorrect identification caused by low visibility; e.g., a triangular stem has low visibility because it is not seen without cutting the stem. 3) absence of adequate choice of characteristics within the alternatives; e.g., leaf forms are too high diverse so that it is difficult to follow the limited number of alternatives. A wildflower identification website that has been designed by considering these three factors has already been published on the internet (http://chiba-muse.jp/yasou2010/).

510 chemistry laboratory tasks in the textbooks for upper secondary school were analyzed by means of LAI (The Laboratory Structure and Task Analysis Inventory). The result of this analysis was compared with physics result from the 229 physics laboratory tasks in present textbooks. Consequently, we pointed out that the shortage of skills about 'formulates a question or defines a problem to be investigated' and 'formulates a hypothesis to be tested in this textbook' have not yet been innovated in these textbooks. Therefore, the needs of concrete countermeasures to innovate teaching was proposed on the basis of my analysis.

The making guidance of the dye sensitized solar cell was conducted to an incumbent teacher of public elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools at the university in the present study. As a result, it turned out that the dye sensitized solar cell is easily made regardless of the school kind. To make the dye sensitized solar cell a teaching material, the questionnaire survey was completed by the teacher of elementary schools, junior high schools and high schools who had participated in training about the device and the problem, in making. It turned out that the making guidance of the dye sensitized solar cell not only developed understanding and the interest concern for teacher's solar battery but also was useful for understanding and the use of the conducting glass, the coloring matter, and titania. The teachers who utilized the dye sensitized solar cell at the class on an educational site after training found that from elementary school up to the junior high school, the high school, the higher the kind of school gets, the clearer the result becomes.

This research investigates the characteristics of design bases that are used by proficient teachers. As methodology for research, analysis by the method of IRF utterance sequence is conducted in line with a process of problem resolution in science classes. For Initiation (I) by teachers, they used 'Process elicitation in Question' and 'Choice elicitation in Question'. By doing so, teachers created the knowledge network while they made students reconsider their ideas, generated more questions, and extended their thoughts. On the contrary, the amounts of directives while students gave presentations about result or they discussed it among other students became obstructive factors that made their thoughts generalized. For Reply (R) by students, teachers tried to spread their ideas around the class by accepting their 'operant responding'. It is figured out that operant utterances by students and the way teachers pick up these utterances into classes are composing the designs for classes. For Feedback (F) by teachers, they used 'Prompts in Evaluation', 'Sanction in Evaluation', 'Repeat the elicitation in Evaluation', and 'Repetition'. By doing so, teachers strengthened the knowledge network while they introduced students' ideas into a whole class, encouraged them to utter, and deepened their thoughts.

This study investigated the influence of classroom contexts of children's learning and motivation for science. Research on motivation, so called situated motivation, indicates the several characteristics of tasks that influence children's engagement in classroom. They involved learning opportunities for choice, challenge, control and collaboration in construction of their views. Moreover, these were fused in instructional design and were practiced in self-regulated learning, project based learning, performance assessment. In this study, we clarified that above mentioned four learning opportunities have fostered the autonomy in children's learning.

Factors that help students to reproduce the semantic structure of text and to construct this into the scientific concept in science class have been studied. This study has explored these tasks in learning model by Kintsch,W. In this model, firstly students have engaged in reproducing the semantic structure of text (text base learning by Kintsch), secondary they have reconstructed this and fused into learned scientific concept(situation model learning by Kintsch). From these points of learning, the instructional design of science have been planned and practiced. As results of this study, students have more precisely constructed the scientific concept.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the structure between the subordinate position concepts of biological concepts and life concepts to compose the idea of life and the relation between them by using the scale measuring the idea of life that Yamaya et al. developed and improved. The measurement standard was executed within the wide domestic range for the child student of sixth-grade elementary school and second-grade lower secondary school. As a result of the cluster analysis, it was shown that conjecture and objective knowledge first formed the cluster and mechanism related to it next in biological concepts. In life concepts, it was shown that value, life, and personification and vitalism previously formed the cluster next, and animism related it to the one that these clusters united mutually. The layered structure of the idea of life based on the idea that existed inside the child student became clear. To examine a spatial position, the multidimensional scaling was done. As a result, the biological concepts and the life concepts were arranged in another dimension on the boundary of the coordinate axis. It turned out the mechanism and animism as each subordinate conception of the biological concepts and the life concepts to be arranged in another dimension on the boundary of the coordinate axis. As for conjecture, when the school year went up as a result of the correlation analysis between the subordinate position concepts, it was shown that other concepts and the correlations became strong, and the correlation of mechanism and animism, value and life also became strong similarly. It was shown that value and life applied them whenever the personification, vitalism, conjecture, and the correlation strengthened respectively, and the acquired knowledge increased, and caught the living thing in the affect. Therefore, the relation between biological concepts and the life concepts increased in second-grade lower secondary school. In a word, it became clear that the two concepts become both circles and the idea of life is formed.

In this study, all the observations and experiments carried in the elementary school science textbooks of publishing company A were typified according to the tendencies of process skills and they were subjected to cluster analysis to determine their characteristics. As a result, the following findings were obtained: (1) The observations and experiments were categorized as follows: - Cluster 2: Observations and experiments where the changes, properties, structures, causal relationships, etc. of phenomena are described. - Cluster 4: Observations and experiments where the relationships between changing independent variables and changes in their accompanying dependent variables are found. - Cluster 3: Observations and experiments where independent variables are controlled and the changes in dependent variables are qualitatively determined. - Cluster 1: Observations and experiments where independent variables are controlled and changes in dependent variables are quantitatively determined and interpreted. (2) In the observations and experiments for third graders, there is some basic content which allows children to notice changes in simple phenomena and there is some complicated content with both independent and dependent variables. (3) In the observations and experiments for fourth graders, the content requires pupils to determine the relationship between independent and dependent variables regarding the phenomena accompanying changes in seasons. (4) In the fifth and sixth years, the observation and experimental skills or techniques that have been acquired in the fourth year are taken full advantage of. For example, the changes in independent variables are quantitatively determined and interpreted. Such content is much more inquiring than that in other school years.

To develop the content of water analyses on the school training, the colorimetric analysis method that used the digital camera for the detector was examined. It is easy also in a dilute coloring solution to do a high sensitivity measurement by using long optical path in the digital camera measurement. Using this fact, we established the convenient and high sensitivity method for the determination of trace amounts of iron at ppb level. This method was applied to the determination of iron in familiar river water and a good result was obtained. Use of this method is expected as the teaching material that promotes student's interests in natural water and science measurement.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of teaching how to conduct group discussions to improve students' ability of scientific considerations. For this purpose, chairpersons were chosen for each group and they were taught the role as chairpersons. Observations were carried out during a lesson on the function of saliva. The result showed that the groups which were taught how to conduct group discussions performed better in describing their considerations with the grounds. It suggested that teaching how to conduct discussions was effective.

A course for teachers aimed at acquisition of knowledge and the skills of observation and experimentation in elementary school science was opened for the teacher qualification renewal system. The course was held separately for those specializing in Matter and Energy fields: one lecture was for third and fourth grades in elementary school, the other was for fifth and sixth grades. For each course, 20 participants attended a lecture to learn about and acquire methods for preparation and teaching of practical experiments related to textbook concepts. Participants also learned background scientific knowledge, skills, and hints related to instruction for experiments.Before the lectures, most participants evaluated themselves not strongly confident in teaching each unit (average 3.1 on a five-point Likert scale). After the lecture, they evaluated themselves as confident at least in teaching about observation methods and experimental materials that they experienced in the lecture (average 4.0 on the five-point scale). Participants also evaluated the lectures' contents and methods in teaching skills and knowledge to teach: results higher than 3.5 (on a four-point scale) were obtained. No excess time was needed and all prepared contents were executed. The contents and the time required for these lectures were highly evaluated. Participants reported high satisfaction with these lectures.However, one person suggested that characteristics of the circuits should be taught more carefully along with reagent dilution and preparation (concentration computations). One questionnaire respondent hoped for a similar course for a unit that was not handled this time in the "Life and the Earth" field. How these requests can be resolved in a limited time is a problem that should be resolved through future practical evaluations.