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application/pdf, Considering social contribution after graduation from universities, it is of critical importance for undergraduate students majoring in science not only to advance one’s speciality and technique, but also to attain sociality and communication skills during their school days. To exploit this point, we herein report the effectiveness of “joint learning between different graders” in a scientific experiment class, in which upper and lower graders were joined together, evaluated by questionnaire given to the students with lower grades. The upper graders participated in first graders’ chemical experiment class as facilitators, which gave rise to most of the first graders who answered that the joint learning program is favourable and wish to continuously take part in, thereby confirming the benefit that the joint learning is important for the first-year education of science course students. This result greatly persuaded us to further promote the joint learning program in experiment classes, and also to develop methodologies of the joint learning program best effective for classroom learning, hopefully paving the way for future achievements of the joint education method.

application/pdf, In Japan, although it has been long since the issues about improving logical thinking skills in university students were raised, the current situation appears to be still lagging behind other countries. This ability is not only necessary when drafting experimental reports at universities, but also indispensable when the students grow up to start working in societies. In this report, we herein introduce educational attempts at Kanagawa Institute of Technology with the aim of improving logical thinking skills. In the series of lectures, a boundary between "what is interesting" and “what is not interesting” was intensively focused, a cautious observation of which could lead students to the awareness about how “interesting” and “logic” are closely related to each other. We hope that this report can promote active discussions about the educational aspects of practical scientific wording in Japanese universities.

application/pdf, Whilst molecular biological articles have been extensively described in high school-level textbook guidelined by MEXT, it is, however, commonly deemed to be practically difficult to perform molecular biological experiments in high schools. We herein report an ingenious protocol for molecular biological experiments best suitable for biology classes in Japanese high schools, comprising DNA extraction, DNA detection, PCR and agarose electrophoresis, all of which can be completed substantially within no more than two classes. In order to exploit the protocol, we cautiously cared the following points: sets of the experiments can be accomplished in typical period in high schools (50 minutes); and most of the listed experiments can be performed in standard high school facilities. For DNA extraction, “silica monolith” spin column (Animos Co. Ltd.) was employed, much facilitating and shortening the procedure (completed within ~10 minutes). DNA from rice powder (O. sativa) and flour (T. aestivum) was successfully detected by means of agarose electrophoresis, followed by PCR amplification by Taq polymerase reaction mixture (Quick Taq® HS DyeMix; Toyobo Co. Ltd.), targeted for RuBisCO small subunit gene through O. sativa specific primers. The amplification was confirmed by agarose electrophoresis, non-hazardously stained by Midori Green (Nippon Genetics Co. Ltd.). To further develop the experimental protocol, it is thought to be necessary not only to supply the equipment required for routine molecular biological experiments in the high schools, but also to manufacture either illustrated or visualised protocol, expecting for future facilitation of molecular biological learning in high schools.

application/pdf, Recent improvements and achievements in information technology have much raised ICT education, with facilitating essential communication between students and teachers via internet. Although active learning or interactive learning has gained much attention in pedagogy to date, few literatures have been reported referring to the practical examples for these learning methodologies. In an aim to further exploit interactive learning framework, we report herein that wiki-based web platform (abbreviated as “wiki” hereinafter) could offer substantial communication space where students and teachers can easily interact both in and out of school, realising ICT education-combined interactive learning. It is of note, however, that wiki platform should be regarded as the supplementals to students, neither as the main textbook nor the substitution of the lectures, mainly because most students appear to appreciate face-to-face learning environments rather than online-only education environments, possibly giving rise to further problem in the present COVID-19 situation.

Additional file 2: Figure S1. PCR trial of animal COI gene with DNA extracted from fish-derived gelatin #9, confirming rigid amplification at Tm = 52 ºC.

Additional file 1.Primers embodied in this study for the animal identifications.

Additional file 3: Figure S2. Dilution experiment of DNA from Ukiyo-e (a). EtBr-stained bands were visible up to 29 dilutions.