Education for disaster prevention incorporating Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) has been introduced in many schools’ curricula along with the general effort to increase people’s awareness after the aftermath of 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. It is now required to introduce earthquake education with the aim of awakening students to disaster prevention. However, the current knowledge about earthquakes provided in the 6^th grade science classes’ curriculum is as limited as “a possible trigger for the changes in land”, without indicating any countermeasures against it. In fact, surveys have shown that elementary school science students and even adults do not fully understand the significance of EEW. Thus, in order to enrich the understanding of earthquakes and disaster prevention, EEW must be addressed in science classes at the elementary level.
Considering our survey result, which has shown that students beyond the 4^th grade level already have a sufficient empirical knowledge of earthquakes, we gave further science lessons at levels above the course of study. These lessons introduced 6^th grade students to additional basic scientific information about earthquakes, the Omori formula, and EEW. As a result, it was found that these students had developed an understanding of EEW.
From these findings, it is proposed that more in-depth earthquake education be introduced in elementary schools.

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In this study, we analyzed the significance of students’ developing views of life through experiences in science education by means of questionnaires to university students about their “experience of nature” and “view of life”.
The results of the study are as follows: (1) Natural experience is a primary experience that is effective for developing views of life. (2) Learning experiences about living things is effective for developing views on animal and plant life. (3) Experience of breeding or contact with animals is effective for developing views of animal life. (4) A nature-rich environment can be an effective medium for developing views of life.
People can develop views of life by coming in contact with, and sensing, living things. Therefore, we can conclude that sensing living things and developing views of life through experiences is important for science education.

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Along with the popularization of the concept of “competence”, the development of a competence-oriented science curriculum has been the subject of controversy. This paper points out some characteristics of the competence oriented science curriculum in Germany today, mainly through analysis of the areas of competence in the chemistry curriculum in the federal states of Germany. These characteristics are as follows.
From the viewpoint of the setting objectives of science education: first, the objectives of science education were understood not only from the aspect of “in Science” but also from the aspect of “about Science”, so four areas of competence in science were defined accordingly; second, in the area of competence “Kommunikation” of chemistry, the development of communication abilities was required from both chemical and cross-curricular aspects. And in the area of competence “Bewertung” of chemistry, the comprehensive understanding of chemistry and the development of abilities for social participation as related to students’ decision-making abilities were required.
From the viewpoint of the selecting contents of science education: first, on the one hand, the selecting teaching contents were based on the discipline of chemistry, but at the same time, the contexts which deal with those contents were given; second, having made these connections, the various contexts, for instance, daily life, social, and historical contexts were given for the development of “Kommunikation” and “Bewertung” competence in chemistry.

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The problem-solving abilities fostered in sixth grade pupils includes the “ability to reason”, in the elementary school course of study “science” revised in 2008. The curriculum writers devised learning sheets that could raise pupils’ “ability to reason” through “manabiai”, or “mutual learning.”
We established the “Comments Box” in the learning sheets, from which children in the same group can take note of each others’ opinions and advice. In addition, we inspected the effects of the utilization of the “Comments Box” on the students’ developing “Ability to Reason” in class practice.
From the results of the study, it was found that the “Comments Box” provided a good opportunity for the pupils to share and mutually learn from each other’s opinions, and this interchange was indeed effective in promoting their “ability to reason”.

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In this study, case method teaching materials using the medium of manga were utilized to examine the ability of university teachers who want to become elementary school teachers to discern problems occurring in science classes. For the case method teaching materials, manga about science classes that included a variety of different problems within their plots and that depicted focus points relating to learning environments, experimental skills, teaching methods and lesson plans were used. The study was carried out with 115 university students who wanted to be teachers. They had to discern the places in the manga where the problems occurred and then explain each problem in detail. From this exercise, it was ascertained that, to a certain extent, the students were able to discern problems relating to class guidance for unexpected events requiring an immediate response, but they were unable to sufficiently discern them with regard to all of the focus points.

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In recent years, science education is expected to enhance learning activities to increase learners’ interest in daily natural phenomena. However, there are few learning activities where learners individually research a daily natural phenomenon through experiments and observation with easy manufacturing. We therefore practiced a series of learning activities for upper secondary school students to perform falling samara experiments and make samara models in order to cultivate their attitudes toward research and to enhance their interest in the falling samara motion. A samara of Acerbuergeriana and a shuttlecock were used for experimental materials because they are familiar and easily available. By repeating the experiments, students began to perform the experiments in appropriately controlled conditions with awareness of the regularity in the results. They found that the samara with a small wing falls freely at first, and then it starts to rotate and falls slowly with a constant speed. Next, they made their unique models whose falling motions are similar to that of samara with shuttlecocks by trial and error. From the results of these activities, most of students are found to research with reasonable experimental methods and increase their interest in the samara and making their models. In this study, a daily biological sample was used as an experimental material for physics without special equipment and technique. Therefore, this teaching material can be used easily and safely for various situations in science classes such as when biology teachers teach physics, and vice versa.

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Ammonium chloride (NH₄Cl) and its aqueous solution have been used for observations of recrystallization in science classes to learn physical and chemical properties of aqueous solutions. So far teachers have often demonstrated such recrystallization phenomena, while students have rarely carried out the experiments individually. We therefore developed a small-scale experimental kit for learners to practice easily and individually the experiment on recrystallization of NH₄Cl. We used this teaching material in a science class, a science workshop and a research activity. We evaluated its usability and educational effects on learners based on responses from learners and teachers in these learning activities. We also discussed the usefulness of the experiment in terms of the variety and multiplicity of teaching materials in chemical education. This teaching material is easy and safe to operate, and it allows learners to clearly observe the recrystallization phenomena and heat of reaction. Using this teaching material for the science workshop, the learners were interested in the recrystallization phenomena. Moreover, upper secondary school students enhanced their scientific thinking and expression through their research activity with the teaching material. This teaching material can be useful for more systematic learning about variety of substances if it applied to various substances and improved for various learning activities.

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The purpose of this study was to instruct 6^th-grade science pupils in such a way that they themselves perform identification of variables and a hypothetical setup to explain the combustion phenomena, and to analyse and clarify the effects on their ability to aquire, understand, and explain the scientific knowledge about the structure of combustion.
In order to achieve this purpose, in the unit “Burning Substances in Air” in 6^th grade science class, a questionnaire was administered before and after the lesson practices for 37 pupils in experimental groups using “the hypothetical setting sheet” (4QS) based on The Four Question Strategy, and not administered for 37 pupils in control groups, and the results of the study were analyzed.
As a result, it became clear that the experimental group could better develop their ability to explain phenomena, and could better understand and retain scientific knowledge about the structure of combustion. Moreover, itwas suggested that the “hypothetical setting sheet” could also be effective in fostering the ability to explain the combustion phenomena scientifically.

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Understanding the molecular phylogenetic tree is considered necessary for the biology curriculum of upper secondary school in many countries. Previous research revealed that Japanese high school students did not adequately understand the meanings of each computational operation in the activity of depicting the molecular phylogenetic tree (Yamanoi et al., 2012b). One possible reason for this is an inadequate understanding of the mechanism by which molecular variations among species arise. So, this research tries to help Japanese high school students understand the principles of the molecular phylogenetic tree by using an existing activity (Westerling, 2008) with some modifications. Classes using the modified teaching material for high school students were conducted. On the basis of pre- and posttest results and the descriptions by the students after classes, this material was considered useful in promoting the students’ understanding of the principle of the molecular phylogenetic tree based on the neutral theory. Also, introducing this teaching material before the activity of depicting the molecular phylogenetic tree could help learners overcome most cognitive difficulties accompanying the computational operations.

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