In this study, three kinds of strategies have been devised in order to improve girls’ feelings and attitudes toward science learning with reference to foreign studies. These strategies are “topics based on girls’ interests and experience”, “cooperative problemsolving activities including aesthetic appreciation” and“ imaginative writing activities”. They have been introduced into the regular lessons on“ electric current” in lower secondary science. From the results, the following five points concerning girls’ feelings and attitudes toward science learning were made clear.
1) There were many girls who realized that three kinds of strategies were pleasant. And theirattitude was also good.
2) In particular, girls liked “creating original illuminations” in “cooperative problem-solvingactivities including aesthetic appreciation”. It was an activity that made a strong impression on girls.
3) There were some “topics” and “imaginative writing” introduced into the lesson whichgirls didn’t show as favorable impressions as compared with the experiment in the usual lesson of this unit.
4) After the unit, the girls’ feelings towardscience learning didn’t become worse.However, girls didn’t tend to feel the usefulness of science for the future either.
5) In this practical study which introduced new strategies, girls enjoyed the learning of the“electric current” unit in general, and felt its contents interesting. However, they had moredifficulty understanding the contents than the contents of other units.

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In this study, we have analyzed the appropriateness of teaching materials on plants with a particular emphasis on comprehension of “biodiversity” and “continuity of life”. Firstly, we have traced the changes in the contents about “body structures and functions of plants” in the Course of Study for lower secondary school in Japan. Next, we have investigated science textbooks for lower secondary school published from 1972 to 2012and we have also inquired about Japanese university students’ experiences with regard to the kinds of plants they observed when they learned about the“ structure of a flower” at their lower secondary schools.
The results of the study are as follows: (1) the topic of “Continuity of life” was not included in “Bodystructure and functions of plants” in the Course of Science from 1989 to 2012, but it was treated in all science textbooks. (2) The plants indicated in the textbooks for observations and experiments were “rape” “azalea” and “pea”. According to our questionnairesurvey, students observed “rape”“ dandelion” and “pea” at lower secondary schools. (3) All the plantsindicated for observations and experiments in the textbooks published in 2012 were suitable for spring observation. (4) In analyzing statistical differences between observations of warm and cool area plants, significant differences were not recognized, with the exception of “Narrow-leaved Vetch”. (5) 55% of the students observed several plants, but 45% of them observed only one plant, or answered “no idea”. It is concluded that the paucity of plant observations at lower secondary schools is a serious problem for students’ “comprehension of biodiversity”.

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We investigate the corresponding relationship between questionnaires and concept maps for force and motion through analysis of replies of students at a public secondary school and an educational university. As a result, students at a public secondary school write the concept maps so that“ force acts” is a upper concept and “force does not act” is a lower concept. These maps are based on everyday experiences. On the other hand, the students at the educational university have a tendency to form a concept of mechanics in which both “force acts” and “force does not act” are upper labels. In particular, the university students, who have scientifically adequate concepts, make the central labels of “force acts” and “force does not act” and construct mechanical concepts that separate the labels associated with the first law of motion from the labels associated with the second law of motion.

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This study was primarily intended to focus on and clarify the critical thinking of elementary school students in science. The secondary aim of this study was to analyze the structure of associated factors that affect the critical thinking of elementary school students and derive suggestions for devising teaching methods. A 35-item questionnaire was conducted on 429 fifth and sixth-grade elementary school students in order to achieve these objectives.
The results with respect to the primary purpose of the study clarified that children’s reflective thinking and awareness of trying to focus on the rationale was low in comparison to their explorative and rational thinking. In addition, the results with respect to the secondary purpose of the study clarified that the greater explorative and rational thinking of children, the more often they think reflectively and focus on the rationales behind opinions.
Based on these findings, it was suggested that guidance should develop children’s explorative and rational thinking in order to then enhance their reflective thinking and awareness of trying to focus on rationales.

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The purpose of this research is to clarify the effectiveness of nature activities that utilize the school biotope. In this survey, we investigate elementary school science activities with respect to consciousness of nature, and verify the effectiveness of nature activity programs for elementary school students. We report on the nature activity programs “Observation of soil animals” and “Seed dissemination”. In the nature activity program “Observation of soil animals”, students engage in the identification, observation, and collection of soil animals. Nature activity “Observation of soil animals” give elementary school students three significant effective learning outcomes: (1) Improvement from previous negative cognitions of soil animals, (2) Notice of the numerousness of living creatures in soil,(3) Understanding of the role of soil animals. In “Seed dissemination”, students engage in the development of seed disseminules models and collect seed disseminules from their school’s biotope. The nature activity “Seed dissemination” gives elementary school students two significant effective learning outcomes. (1) Improvement of interest in plants and/or plant seeds, (2) Surprise at plants’ vitality. And, there was a rise in consciousness of respect and protection of plants through the two nature activities. In conclusion, we verify the effectiveness of natural science programs utilizing the elementary school children’s own school biotope.

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One of the most important problems in science education is to foster students’“ scientific reasoning and expression” ability. In this research, we clarified that using performance assessments can pragmatize four learning styles in the instructional design of science lessons that foster the ability of “scientific reasoning and expression”. The analyses of the children’s activities in these science lessons revealed the following points.
· Assessment of children’s performances based on “Concept Mapping” ”Open-ended tasks” and “Problem-solving tasks” can pragmatize the learningstyle of“ Imaginative Learners”.“ Concept Mapping” shows children’s preconceptions, “Open-ended tasks” show their experience and knowledge, and “Problemsolving tasks” show their experiment plans and simulations.
· Assessment of children’s performances based on“Problem-solving tasks” and “Process assessment tasks” can pragmatize the learning style of “Analytic Learners”. “Problem-solving tasks” show children’s activities during observations and experiments, and “Process assessment tasks” show the skill of making a figure/table.
· Assessment of children’s performances based on“ Process assessment tasks” and “Problem-solving tasks” can pragmatize the learning style of “Common Sense Learners”. “Problem-solving tasks” show children’s explanations of natural phenomena, and “Process assessment tasks” show discussion and presentation skills.
· Assessment of children’s performances based on “Concept Mapping” and “Open-ended tasks” can pragmatize the learning style of “Dynamic Learners”.“Concept Mapping” shows children’s scientificconceptions, “Open-ended tasks” show their new problems, and “Self-evaluation” shows their reflection of them.

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This study aims to reconsider teaching theory related to concept formation under the constructivist “generative learning model.”
We undertook this study for two main reasons. The first is our belief that the learning process progresses on the basis of successful regulation of the struggle between the known and the unknown, an approach that can assist in the planning of specific lessons to foster a zest for living. The second is the lack of teaching models with clear guidelines on how to connect teaching and learning. We aim to prove that the generative learning model can be used as a concrete learning model to achieve this connection. Thus, this study also discusses the five “three-stage teaching sequences” and the findings of the “Learning in Science Project” that Osborne worked on.
Our paper identifies four cruxes in teaching theory: the importance of fostering metacognition in lessons, the need to awaken students to the significance and necessity of learning, and the necessity of encouraging a reflective thinking approach by pupils.

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This study is related to the following three objectives.The first objective is to develop the skills that deal with science education in Japan by selecting and integrating the process skills of Science-A Process Approach(SAPA). The second is to classify, according to type, the observations, experiments, and other learning activities carried out in science textbooks of elementary and lower secondary school on the basis of the newly developed “skills for observation and experiment” and determine their inquiring characteristics. The third one is to demonstrate the relationship between the types of respective observations, experiments, etc. from a viewpoint of connecting the “skills of observation and experiment” cultivated in elementary and lower secondary school. The following results were obtained:
(1) Seven higher skills and 31 lower skills were newly developed as the “skills for observation and experiment” by selecting and integrating SAPA’s process skills.
(2) Observations, experiments, etc. at elementary school were classified, on the basis of the skills for observation and experiment, into five types with inquiring characteristics.
(3) Observations, experiments, etc. at lower secondary school were classified, on the basis of the skills for observation and experiment, into six types with inquiring characteristics.
(4) It was demonstrated that the observations and experiments at elementary school included in the five types were differentiated, developed, matched and integrated with the six types at lower secondary school.

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Students know the Copernican view of the cosmos, but it is much easier to understand the movements of astronomical bodies from the Ptolemaic view with direct observation. The students could interpret their movements via the Copernican theory with their teacher’s explanations, but they still had the question of why the Ptolemaic theory was not scientific.
In this study, the teacher explained the movements of astronomical bodies according to both the Copernican and Ptolemaic theories. The learning unit consisted of five sub-units, “Introduction”, “Diurnal Motion of the Sun”, “Annual Motion of the Constellations”, “Changing Seasons and the Altitude of the Sun” and “Summary”. The partial concept maps, i.e. partial maps, were constructed at the end of the sub-units of “Diurnal Motion of the Sun”, “Annual Motion of the Constellations” and “Changing Seasons and the Altitude of the Sun”, and a complete concept map was constructed from these three partial maps, at the final sub-unit of “Summary”. The students’ commitment to the Copernican view increased through the process of the learning unit, and they understood that the conformity of relations among the theories, i.e.concordance of the theories, was more important than that of between each facts and theories for considering the movements of the astronomical bodies. From this, they realized the superiority of the Copernican view. They also realized the importance of holistic understanding in the theoretical network. Concept mapping worked as an effective tool for showing the theoretical network for holistic understanding of the movements of astronomical bodies.

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The chart of classifying the cloud forms was made.Cloud forms can be classified comparatively easily by utilizing such a chart. Moreover, to gain basic knowledge of cloud observation, the monthly appearance frequency of the cloud forms was examined using the observation data of the Osaka District Meteorological Observatory. Observation cards, which were diverted the business card, and the web page were utilized as teaching materials for the reference of cloud classification. Students can classify cloud forms based on the information obtained from these materials.

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