高等学校における自然科学研究と科学論文執筆指導の実際 : 兵庫県立加古川東高等学校地学部の活動を具体例にして

　The serious educational issue that “students are not interested in natural science” has become apparent in recent years. Civic lectures for children have been given in many places. The contents of such lectures are interesting, and public experiments have attracted the attention of the children. However, such events can be classified as “scientific play”, and cannot be said to be study of “the natural science”. Initially, all students are interested in natural science. The teachers have a strong sense of perseverance, and it is necessary to have the desire to train students to study a natural phenomenon they are interested in. When teachers think that it is serious when students dislike science, and care about them, they appeal to the students to study for only the pleasure of the science, but the students lose interest in the natural world. The training of sciences, languages and mathematics to express nature objectively is important for students. The students become disinterested in natural phenomena. It is “diminishing will” of the students.
　It tends it to be argued in student meetings whether the research is an applied study or is fundamental research. Examination committee members may ask “are the results of the research useful for the society?” Research that leads to discoveries and innovations that are immediately useful for the general society tend to get high evaluations. In the Earth Science club of our high school, students perform fundamental research in a very difficult situation, but get results. In addition, personal and collaboration studies are being evaluated highly, although the group study is hard to evaluate. In the case of group studies, it is difficult to determine the contribution of each individual to the study as a whole. The Earth Science club of our high school forms a student group for every study theme, and each student has a role responsibility that carries through the study. We do not use any special analytical instruments, but can do high-quality research if there are good viewpoints and original ideas. By this process, the students understand the meaning of study, and acquire study techniques and the desire to become researchers in the future.