Sponge cucumbers have been used for a long time as a science teaching material. Also, balsam pears have been cultivated in many schools for different purposes, such as to create shade when grown outside windows (a use known in Japan as a "Green Curtain"). Those plants are, however, usually used only for the 4^<th> grade unit "Growth of Plants and Seasons" and the 5^<th> grade unit "Pollination and Bearing of Plants". Therefore a teaching material using the characteristic growth process of cucurbitaceaeous cirrus was developed in this study. The cirrus includes two opposite rotating coils starting in its center. A test model system of the cirrus was used in practical classes for two years to help students understand it. In addition, another class project using the contrasting seed dispersal of those two plants was devised and carried out. During practical classes the educational effects of those teaching materials were shown. They were found to be useful as an advanced form of study.

This research is an investigation about the influence that the children of the place independence type exert on the children of the place dependence type in plant observation activities. That is an influence on the children (place dependence type) who have the broad observation tendency by the children (place independence type) who have a microscopic observation tendency. These activities increased the quantity of details noticed by the children of the place dependence type. As well, the activities were effective in increasing the points of view of the observation for the children of the place dependence type. In particular, the children of the place dependence type came to pay more detailed attention to the more microscopic details. It was found that the influence of the place independence type's good side was taken. As for the elementary school third-grade students, it was found that the activities that utilize a recognition type for plant observation are suitable for attaining the purpose of science learning.

Learning about pendulums is often considered a difficult unit for students to understand. As for just one of the factors that make this unit difficult, it must be pointed out how to handle numerical processes. This research focused attention on the recognition of averaging and errors and examined the impact of handling numerical values on students' judgments of algebraic comparisons. As a result, it was revealed that direct comparison of multiple numerical values under each condition more easily led to recognition of errors than comparison of two averaged values. When averaging was not used, variation in numerical values or dispersion was easily imagined because measured values were directly compared. This led to easier recognition of errors.On the other hand, averaging means comparison of representative values of each of two conditions. Because two values were compared, dispersion of numerical values was difficult to imagine. This made recognition of errors more difficult. When averaging was not used, many students could improve their misconceptions. Recognizing their errors, students were able to make appropriate judgements.

A scenario workshop taking up the new Organ Transplant Bill as the subject was carried out in order to study the method and the effects of using the scenario workshop, a technique for participative technology assessment, in the context of the teaching of science classes (STS education) which are intended to take up the relationship of science and technology to society. The results of a questionnaire survey taken before and after the classes showed an increase in the proportion of students who were highly interested in the new Organ Transplant Bill. There was also an increase in the proportion of students who had higher consciousness of social participation in the revision of the new Organ Transplant Bill. Furthermore, from an analysis of the protocols, it was found that the students were learning from each other, and that discussions proceeded by repeating agreements, disagreements, and questioning, so that an atmosphere conducive to speaking was fostered by using this technique. Therefore, it was shown that, in the teaching of science classes, it is fully practical to use the scenario workshop as a technique for discussion and consensus formation conducted by the students themselves.

The purpose of this study is to develop the teaching method for concept acquisition of the simple pendulum based on the children's pre-learning cognition about the simple pendulum. This teaching method has three features: (1) Teaching the thinking framework between the cycle of the simple pendulum and three conditions through "speed" and "moving distance". (2) Showing that the height of the simple pendulum's start point and end point are the same, and (3) Showing that, in free fall, the pendulum's "speed" does not change with "heaviness of weight." This teaching method was administered to 69 fifth graders (35 experimental, 34 control) to investigate the effectiveness of this method. The research shows that, as a result of this method, the score of the concept acquisition of the experimental group had increased significantly more than the control group two months later.

We developed a moon phase model for use in lower secondary school third-grade Science classes. The modeled moon phase is strongly linked with actual observations through an angle between the directions of the moon (or its model) and the sun (or a light source). We also developed a moon phase study program, in which the model should be used, so that we can evaluate the effectiveness of the model in practical use for students' understanding. We surveyed the students who had these programmed lessons by questionnaire in order to measure how well they had understood the "relationship between the moon's phase and the moon's relative position to the Earth and the sun" and the "relationship between the observed and modeled moon phases". We obtained the following results: (1) The percentage of correct answers increased significantly after the lessons and also two months later, which suggests that our study program using the model is effective for students' understanding and establishment of their concept of moon phase. (2) A high percentage of the students having the programmed lessons have considered that the phases of the observed moon and the modeled moon are seen in the same way, which suggests that a linkage between the observation and the model has been established in their view of the moon phase.

This study aimed to develop and evaluate a case method teaching material for college students studying to become teachers in order to develop their ability to plan science lessons. The case method teaching material developed in this study combines a manga textbook with a narrative approach and lesson plan. The material is designed to develop the skills and competencies required for science teachers by engaging the students in the activity of comparing the manga textbook and lesson plan. Students' lesson planning abilities were evaluated from three viewpoints: 1) classroom teaching, 2) instruction on experiments, and 3) lesson environment. An evaluation experiment was conducted with college students studying to become teachers. The following three items were examined: 1) changes in viewpoints on how much importance students place on writing their lesson plans; 2) the number of changes made to the contents of the students' lesson plans and how that related to the changes in their viewpoints in (1); and 3) students' perceptions of the use and effectiveness of the case method teaching material. As a result, statistically significant results were obtained for almost all items. These results suggest that this case method teaching material is effective in developing the ability to plan science lessons.

In this paper, a developed experimental education material to measure the rate of a chemical reaction is described. Vitamin B_1 (thiamine) is familiar to students as a nutrient. It is oxidized by potassium ferricyanide in alkaline solutions to thiochrome, which exhibits a brilliant blue fluorescence. When thiamine is decomposed in an alkaline solution, the rate of the reaction is proportional to the concentration of thiamine. This is called a first-order reaction. Thiamine has the potential to be a superb educational material to study reaction rates. The rate constant and activation energy for thiamine decomposition can be measured by a handmade fluorometer, which is made of inexpensive materials. The results show that the rate constant k is 0.0085s^<-1>(16.9℃), 0.0167s^<-1>(25.1℃) and the activation energy Ea is 61.5kJmol^<-1>. This new experimental material was introduced in a senior high school science class. Most of the students measured and computed similar figures to the above results. The students were highly motivated and most gave positive answers in the questionnaire.

The observation of trees with identification is a challenging activity for teachers who lack knowledge about trees. Effects of usual activities on learners' skills in observation are not still understood specifically. In this study, a simple activity of observation of schoolyards trees without identification was developed for such teachers. The activity was performed for upper secondary school students by using an original worksheet, and the effects of the activity on the learner's viewpoints on trees were specifically evaluated. Most of students focused on leaves and branches without clear viewpoints of observation before the activity. After the activity, however, they focused not only on leaves and branches but also on other organs with various viewpoints of observation. They also learned the names of the schoolyards trees and transformed their images of the trees into clear pictures. This activity is evaluated to be effective for learners in improving their skills in observation, and it can be introduced into school lessons easily.

This study aims to adapt a conflict map to the learning of conceptual changes of dissolution as a cognitive approach. Conflict 2 was solved through the introduction of "another proper concept related to scientific concepts" on the conflict map. The subject for the research, in this regard, was the conceptualization of uniformity in an aqueous solution which was taught in the first year of junior high school. From the ethnomethodological point of view, how supportive the interventions by teachers' revoicing function were in this conceptualization was verified. This study, in a phase of solving Conflict 2, which is significant in scientific conceptualization, set "the concept of microparticulated solvent" as "another proper concept related to scientific concepts". Through the process of eliciting this concept of microparticulated solvent from students and expressing the relation of solute and solvent as a "perceptual event", they solved Conflict 2 and formed the scientific conceptualization of uniformity. In the process of forming "the concept of microparticulated solvent", it was verified that the supportive interventions by teachers' revoicing were feedback through paraphrasing, interpretations that help students find new perspectives, and reformulation.

The received wisdom is that the conception of the direction and magnitude of an electric current is difficult for students to understand. We have reported that females' cognitive motivation and interest are lower than males' when they learn an electrical unit, which is a serious situation. A science textbook has included "convention context" in lower secondary school in Japan since 1984. Convention context consists of an electrical series and a parallel circuit connecting two bulbs, two dry cells, a circuit switch, and leads. The bulb (3.8V-0.3A) is brighter than the other bulb (2.5V-0.3A) on the series circuit. We plan "zero context" which consists of these circuits connected to a different standard bulb from convention context. The only bulb (3.8V-0.3A) lights on the series circuit (the other bulb: 2.5V-0.5A). The purpose of this study is to obtain how zero context affects students' cognition. 320 first grade lower secondary school students who had not studied electricity since entering the school answered either context questionnaire in the same sequence. We obtained the following results: Zero context has a stronger positive effect on cognitive motivation than convention, which is an improvement on the students' serious condition. However, zero context also makes the context-dependency of students who already have context-dependency heavier. Students are able to examine their established conceptualizations more deeply, but zero context may make it more difficult for students to reconceptualize or correct some mistaken models to a correct one. If students can not only merely memorize the correct conception but also explain the difference in the brightness of bulbs in the electrical circuits using the conception of the principles of the direction and magnitude of an electric current, voltage, and resistance, they who have context-dependency may memorize the correct conception as strongly as those who do not depend on context. This is a problem. Although some teachers have used zero context in science classes, they should use it after solving the problem.

Teaching and learning as a conceptual change has become an important theme in science education research. Systems designed both to support teaching and learning as conceptual change and to run on mobile devices have not yet been developed. Mobile devices are expected to play an increasingly prominent role in the progress of education. Further, the development of science education systems designed to support teaching and learning as a conceptual change would be of great value. In this study, we developed a system that runs on mobile devices by improving on the existing Digital Fortune Line (DFL) system. The existing DFL system is, effectively, a digitized version of the paper-based fortune line method widely used in science education up to now. Network-enabled systems in particular aim to contribute to learning for conceptual change by facilitating the visualization and sharing of learners' commitment. On the basis of this system, we developed a new system in this study that runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch. In conjunction with this development, we conducted a preliminary assessment among graduate students aspiring to be teachers, and an assessment based on actual elementary science lessons. The purpose of these assessments was to consider, on the basis of the subjective assessment data of learners and teachers, whether such a system would have good usability and would provide support for learning. The results of these assessments based on the subjective assessments of learners and teachers showed that although the system have modification regarding input of line, the system has good usability on the whole, as well as good potential for supporting learning.

In this study, we propose an instructional method to develop "critical thinking in physics" through a unit for upper secondary school students. In this method, students will do the following two learning activities in the unit. First, students will make "the causal relation map" which illustrates reasoning processes of causal relations, in order to learn a technique for critical thinking. Second, students will apply the technique to observations and experiments in their classes by using a worksheet designed for the technique. The instructional method was performed in a class in order to investigate its effectiveness. The respondents are 38 students who take the course "Physics I" at an affiliated senior high school. Based on the students' writings on questionnaires and worksheets for the class, we conclude that our method can improve their scientific inquiry skills and rational thinking skills, which are part of the critical thinking attitude necessary in science.

This research examined the level of awareness of environmental ethics among high school students and sought to identify trends using two criteria: "concept of the environment" and "deep ecology". As a result of this research, the following three characteristics of high school students' awareness of environmental ethics were clarified. (1) While many students were acutely aware of environmental issues and expressed a strong affinity for the concepts of "deep ecology", few students had acquired sufficiently sophisticated knowledge about the issues themselves or the behaviors required to resolve them. (2) Although many students were interested in nature and liked playing or spending time in the natural environment, few had experienced a sense of identification with nature in a natural environment or had opportunities in everyday life to come in contact with nature. (3) The closer the contact students had with nature, the greater the affinity they felt for the concepts of "deep ecology".

The purpose of this research was to clarify the differences in the idea of life between males and females and among communities. Targeting the sixth-grade elementary school students and the second-grade lower secondary school students, the average values of items included in each basic component of the biological concepts and life concepts constituting the idea of life were obtained as subscale scores by a scale measuring the idea of life developed by Yamaya et al. As a result, the following were revealed: 1 As for the comparison of the idea of life between male students and female students in both academic years above, the values of "Animism" and "Life" of female students were significantly higher than those of male students, and the second-grade lower secondary school female students living in urban areas and female students of both academic years living in rural areas scored significantly higher in "life" than male students did. Furthermore, female students of the second-grade lower secondary school scored significantly high in a larger number of basic concepts than male students of the same academic year did. 2 As for the comparison of the idea of life among communities, students in urban areas scored significantly higher in the fundamental concepts of life. The concepts that the sixth-grade elementary school students scored significantly higher on were the life concepts, and that of the second-grade lower secondary school students were the biological concepts. Male students of both academic years in urban areas scored significantly higher in "Mechanism" than those in rural areas. This result is considered to be caused by the environmental differences between urban areas and rural areas.

In this study, an iron ball is made to levitate using the magnetic force created by two magnets with a gap between them. A non-magnetic plate is set vertically under the magnets near the gap, and, on contact with the plate, an iron ball is released by hand. If the release point is near the levitation point, the ball will neither fall down nor stick to either of the magnets. The levitation samples are shown with various types of magnets and iron balls.

The purpose of this research was to present the material classified by the concepts of analytical processing and holistic processing from the contents of study in elementary school and lower secondary school science classes. The course components from the science curricular of elementary school and lower secondary school that had been adopted in 2008 were classified. Five categories were set to the classification. Introducing the concept of analytical processing and holistic processing into the research into students' cognition of nature in consideration of the method learners utilize to process information about natural phenomena is significant in terms of the research into learners' cognition of nature by new aspects can be developed. It is thought that applying this material into which the contents of study was classified by the concepts of analytical processing and holistic processing can contribute to the progress of research into students' cognition of nature as well as the development of science teaching methods.