The objectives of this study are twofold: first, to develop a method for creating Virtual Reality (VR) teaching materials on geological formations that is not only easier to create than conventional methods, but that can also better support spatial understanding of geological formations; second, to verify the effectiveness of the created VR teaching materials. To achieve the first objective, a method for creating VR teaching materials that combines 3D models and Google Earth was developed. To achieve the second objective, a class practice for 171 second grade students in a lower secondary school was conducted, verifying the effectiveness of the new method in terms of student usability and comprehension. The usability study suggested that the use of 3D models enables users to observe the details of geological formations. The investigation of the comprehension level also revealed that the 3D model, which enables the observation of strata from various directions, can support the students’ spatial recognition of strata. The efficacy of the newly developed VR teaching material was thus confirmed.

The purpose of this study was to develop teaching materials that enable students to actively observe the moon and stars in three dimensions in the 4th grade Science unit on the topic of “Moon and Stars,” which is the initial stage of basic concept formation about “Earth”. For this purpose, we first developed educational materials using images taken by an all-sky camera system that enables direct three- dimensional viewing of the actual sky and allows anyone to observe and learn about the sky and space via the Internet, regardless of the season, time, or weather conditions. Next, we conducted a class for 4th grade students to investigate the movement of the moon and stars using the developed teaching materials. The results showed that the number of students who responded positively to the subjective evaluation in the post-survey was significantly higher than those who responded negatively. It thus became clear that this material helps make it easier for 4th grade students to get a sense of the spatial extent of the sky and space, as compared to conventional visual materials for astronomy learning.

Rhinoceros beetles are popular insects, well-known from childhood in Japan, but it has been reported that many students, preservice teachers, and elementary school teachers do not have a correct understanding of their body structure. Therefore, this study developed a lesson to help students understand the body structure of rhinoceros beetles by dealing with the evolution of insect segmental structure. As a side effect of this lesson, we expected to deepen students’ understanding of the body structure and evolution of arthropods. As a result of the practice lesson with junior high school students, the percentage of students who selected an appropriate illustration of the body structure of rhinoceros beetles increased significantly after the class. The results also suggest that students’ understanding of the body structure of arthropods was deepened through the class; knowledge such as “a pair of legs grows from a single segment” and “some arthropods have fused body segments” was obtained. On the other hand, after the class, more students described the characteristics of arthropods as those of insects, with descriptions such as “body divided into head, thorax and abdomen” and “legs from the thorax”. The development of teaching materials on evolution and the taxonomy of arthropods, which account for about half of the known species on Earth, is expected to continue in the future.

Celestial globes are difficult to operate intuitively and to use without sufficient proficiency in their operation methods. Therefore, training opportunities for operating celestial globes were set, both in lectures for renewal of teaching licenses for incumbent teachers, and in science teaching method classes for undergraduate education students. The author clarified cautions in teacher education and attention points when using the globes, especially transparent celestial globes, which are commercially available, and which have cameras installed inside the globes for easy confirmation of both interior and exterior perspectives. It is noteworthy that, while none of the participants were able to operate them properly before the lecture, all participants had mastered them within 180 minutes. Two important points related to use of celestial globes are the devotion of attention to the positional relation of the drawn constellations, and the ability to point to a specific star rather than a constellation during exercises. When using the modified globe, it is necessary to improve the visibility of the image captured by the camera and to keep in mind that the model takes time to assemble. Participants evaluated the use of the celestial globes to aid in understanding of targeted learning content by viewing the model in front of their own eyes and by observing it three-dimensionally and/or operating it with their own hands; in doing so, participants could recall the scene more easily later by mentally shifting their perspectives. Participants also pointed out the difficulty of arranging the necessary number of celestial globes, securing the necessary time, and teaching with the model in actual lessons. They recognized the necessity of good planning and consideration in teaching methods to promote students’ understanding of operation methods and learning contents. One must keep in mind that, for fostering the ability to envision actual lessons, thinking about “what to do for the students in front of me, as a teacher” when using the celestial globes is indispensable for teacher education, especially for undergraduate students.

The importance of competence-based science education in early childhood has been well-researched and is well-known internationally. In Japan, on the other hand, life science classes do not exist in the kindergarten. In this research, analyzing educational standards in the United States of America, Australia, and the Philippines, the contents of these early life science lessons, including each competency area, were categorized. A practical survey in Finland showed that although science class did not exist in the early childhood education there, the contents that connect to the basic competencies of all the four competency domains in life science were nonetheless included in their education. Comparing these findings to the five categories in the Japanese Course of Study for kindergarten, it was suggested that cross-category life science learning content is recommended in Japanese early childhood education to help construct the learners’ basic life science competencies that they will use throughout their education and beyond.

In this study, we assumed the “Manabi-ni Mukau Chikara, Ningensei Tou” (motivation to learn and humanity) model, including its seven types of competencies related to the awareness of scientific literacy as well as proactive and collaborative attitudes among the learners, and aimed to develop and test a teaching method for enhancing all the competencies. The method is comprised of two processes. Process I has pupils determine their own action goals independently before problem solving, with the expectation that this will facilitate their proactive and collaborative attitudes and that their level of self-efficacy will thus improve. Process II teaches the relationship between learned content and daily life as its application, with the aim of making pupils aware of the “utility”, “importance”, and “relevance to occupation” of science learning, and to thus become more interested in science. As the results of test lessons in the sixth-grade unit on “levers” in an elementary school revealed that the experimental class, using the teaching method devised, demonstrated statistically significant positive effects in six of seven competencies as well as achievement scores, as compared to those in the control class. These positive results suggest the effectiveness of the method in enhancing the “Manabi-ni Mukau Chikara, Ningensei Tou” (motivation to learn and humanity) in elementary school science lessons.

This study focused on desirable and undesirable behaviors in “interactive learning” (for example, demonstrating stubborn attitude or “free-riding”), and examined whether these behaviors occur in science observations and experimentation. We also examined the relationship among behaviors such as interaction, stubborn attitude, free-riding, and psychological safety for science teachers and for members of the experimental group. The results demonstrated that behaviors that are not desirable or conducive to successful “interactive learning” occurred during the observations and experiments. Only the psychological safety for the members of the experimental group has a desirable effect on the interaction group in “interactive learning”. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation from psychological safety of the experimental group to the stubborn attitude and a significant negative correlation from psychological safety of science teachers to the stubborn attitude. These results revealed the actual behavior of students in “interactive learning” and the positive and negative effects of psychological safety on their learning.

In this study, we aimed to clarify how learners generated questions, based on the findings of Kawasaki and Yoshida (2021), and judged whether the questions could be scientifically explored. With this aim, we conducted a case study using the developed “Information Analysis Q-Chart” in a 5th grade unit on “How Electric Current Works”. From the data gathered, we analyzed the students’ questions and investigated the roots of their lines of inquiries by classifying the judgment of whether the question can be scientifically explored into four categories: “scientific judgment,” “unfounded judgment,” “personal judgment” and “unsolved judgment.” The “what type” and “how type” questions which included concrete methods for pursuing the process were classified as ‘scientific judgment’. The “what type” questions, which investigate the cause, and “how type” questions, which investigate the visible phenomenon itself, were regarded as “unfounded judgments” of phenomena that nonetheless could be scientifically investigated. In addition, it became clear that “how type” inquiries that pursue the process tend toward an “unsolved judgment” outcomes. Moreover, in the “how type” inquiries that pursue the process in “unfounded judgements” and “unsolved judgements”, it was suggested that there were actual cases in which learners judged the question in a manner enabling scientific exploration, or the discussion ended without being resolved when the phenomena was difficult to observe and demonstrate.

In this study, an anatomy exercise and observation of plastination specimens (hereinafter referred to as specimen observation) using squid were practiced in lower secondary school science classes, and the situation of students’ observation of parts and organs, and students’ attitudes toward anatomy exercises and specimen observations were investigated and analyzed. The purpose of this study was to discuss the effectiveness of specimen observation through a comparison between anatomy exercise and specimen observation based on the above two perspectives. The results of the study revealed the following two points. 1. There was no clear difference in the situation of students’ observation of parts and organs between the anatomy exercise and the specimen observation, with the exception of the observation of branchial heart. 2. There was no clear difference in the students’ attitudes toward anatomy exercise and specimen observation, and both were generally well-received. The above results suggest the effectiveness of introducing specimen observation.

In order to understand that water vapor, which causes heavy rainfall in Japan during the rainy season and summer, is transported to the vicinity of Japan by the general circulation of the atmosphere on a global scale, we developed and implemented an inquiry teaching material using WEB weather maps. In this practice, three types of WEB weather maps were utilized, and the core of the lesson was for individual students to explore the origin of water vapor in a composite manner based on the cloud, rain, and wind information that could be read from the maps. The results of this practice with third-year lower secondary school students demonstrated that, after the lesson, 71% of the students were able to find and express the possibility that water vapor was transported from at least as far away as the Pacific and Indian Oceans, based on their comprehensive consideration of several different sources of information about the origin of water vapor. Moreover, 77% of the students were able to consider multiple pieces of meteorological information in a composite manner, and this led them to consider the connection between meteorological conditions around Japan and the global atmospheric general circulation. In addition, 37% of the students showed an enhanced interest in weather through the use of the WEB weather maps, and 20% of the students felt that they would like to use the maps in the future. The usefulness of the teaching material using the Web weather maps developed for this study is therefore considered to be effectively demonstrated.

In this paper, the authors discussed the significance of why students should learn natural resources education from pre-WWII historical perspectives, and in the context of human life and the natural environment. We analyzed Natural history (Mineralogy) textbooks used at secondary schools for boys from 1886 to 1941; in this period, the term ‘resources’ appeared, and the concept of resources was established. We analyzed the following data referring to the Isozaki’s notion of aims and objectives: the numbers of natural resources mentioned in the textbooks, the ideas of leading professors of the Imperial Universities who were the textbooks authors, and social changes relating to natural resources during that time period. Consequently, we found out that the changing of the types and numbers of natural resources in the textbooks during the period reflected the rapid social changes of the era. In addition, the cultural and liberal values of learning about natural resources had begun to be emphasized after the subject ‘Mineralogy’ and the term ‘resources’ were established, and continued to be emphasized constantly, even when changes in society were occurring. On the other hand, the emphasis of the practical and utilitarian, and the economic and national values of learning about natural resources had changed at various times due to the social changes. The authors suggested the following two points: (1) The significance of learning about resources should include learning with respect to positive contributions to the learners’ lives and, moreover, to the students’ personality development. Cultural and liberal values are important in learning about resources. (2) The contents of natural resources should include learning about regional uniqueness, scarcity of resources, formation of resources, and relationships between society and technology.

For this study, a teaching method in which students learn to recognize various occupations related to science and technology by collaborating during science lessons was developed and deployed during a period of integrated study at the lower secondary school level. The teaching method is comprised of two phases. Phase I relates science content learned in science lessons to various occupations. In Phase II, activities are carried out in the period of integrated study, wherein students investigate and present the efforts of companies of various occupations using science and technology. We hypothesized that the students’ recognition of occupations related to science and technology would be fostered via this method. The successful result of the experimental lessons in the first grade of a lower secondary school supported the hypothesis. It was thus confirmed that the teaching method is indeed effective for helping students to recognize various occupations related to science and technology.

The purpose of this study was to devise an instructional method to foster “the ability to examine the validity of mutual ideas based on scientific evidence” among the consensus-building skills in elementary school science classes, and to verify its effectiveness through classroom practice. In order to achieve this objective, we first organized the differences in consensus building according to one of two learning situations: hypothesis-setting: “accommodation,” which is a temporary state of co-existence and parallelism of diverse opinions, or discussion : “consensus,” which is agreement of opinions. Next, considering the differences in consensus formation depending on the learning situation, we devised instructional methods for each of the hypothesis-setting and discussion situations. In the hypothesis-setting scene, considering accommodation, which is the goal of consensus formation, we devised an instructional method to have students examine the validity of the hypothesis after setting up a scene in which they accept the ideas of others. In the discussion scene, we devised an instructional method in which the participants examine the validity of the discussion based on argumentation structure, with consideration of consensus (the goal of consensus formation); participants then decide on a single discussion as a group. In order to verify the effectiveness of our teaching method, we conducted a lesson on “how things dissolve” using potassium chloride for 59 fifth-grade students at an elementary school. The results of the analysis using questionnaires and evaluation questions suggested that the devised teaching method contributed to the development of “the ability to examine the validity of each other’s ideas based on scientific evidence.”

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a new lesson design based on existing lesson designs from previous studies with a focus on “supporting epistemic understanding of evidence in argument” to further support the development of students’ argument construction skills and foster the use of more appropriate and sufficient evidence. The new lesson design consisted of the following two elements (1) A framework for “learning goals” regarding what kind of content should be supported in epistemic understanding for Japanese elementary school students to be able to use appropriate and sufficient evidence in their argument construction, and (2) Development of learning content to help elementary science classes achieve these learning goals. The lesson design was applied in the fourth-grade elementary school class on “Metals, Water, Air and Temperature” for a total of 17 hours of class time with 66 learners. Results demonstrated that the students’ use of appropriate and sufficient evidence in argument structure improved, respectively, but there remained a significant number of learners who did not reach a satisfactory level in the sufficiency of their evidence. These results indicate that the new lesson design is as effective as existing lesson designs. On the other hand, when we examined the relationship between the tasks related to argument construction and epistemic understanding of evidence, we found that “the relationship between claims and evidence in argument” had a significant positive correlation with the sufficiency of evidence in pupils’ argument structure. These results suggest that this lesson design, when improved upon as a design that more strongly supports epistemic understanding of the sufficiency of evidence, has the potential to further support the development of students’ argument construction skills more effectively than existing lesson designs.

This study was designed to examine how children expand their knowledge of plants and use analogical inferences by interacting with their teacher and other children. With this aim, I observed a class of five-year-olds for six months. The results of this study identified four functions of the personification of plants. The teacher personalized plants in order to 1) teach children to feel familiar with and behave kindly towards plants, 2) help children to use inferences drawn from their knowledge about people, 3) help children to use inferences drawn from their knowledge about other plants, and 4) explain what they look like. The results gleaned from the long-term observation suggest that children learn how to become familiar with plants and grow plants through interactions. Moreover, different teachers may use personification in diverse ways; their beliefs and experience may affect their methods of utilizing personification.

In High School Physics textbook published by TOKYO SHOSEKI, an exploratory project using RLC circuits is presented. The explanation says that “The miniature bulb L1 does not light up and bulb L2 and L3 light up at resonance frequency”. However, such an outcome cannot usually be realized by students in the classroom. That situation can be realized only when L/C takes a specific value. In order to find the proper conditions for successful realization, I have developed an application software that draws a vector diagram of the RLC circuit and used it to find the correct parameters. In this paper, I demonstrate appropriate parameters for the project to be successfully realized. In addition, I propose a method using an ampere meter instead of miniature bulbs.

In the Super Science High School (SSH) project, which has been promoted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) since 2002, learners are expected to be proactive in their inquiry activities. In this study, we conducted a survey aimed at clarifying the factors that influence such inquiry activities in SSH. As a result of analyzing questionnaires administered to a total of 714 lower and upper secondary school students, three main factors that influence proactive inquiry activities in SSH were revealed: acceptance by others, mastery experience, and self-efficacy. Based on the results of this study, it is thought that enhancing self-efficacy through repeated mastery experiences while fostering a learning atmosphere in which students are accepted by others, will lead to further successful developments in proactive inquiry activities in SSH.