We have been conducting research aimed at reorganizing life science education in elementary and secondary school into a more competence-based style. In the field of life science, recently the amount of new knowledge, including that of molecular biology, has greatly increased. Further, the fusion with other fields such as engineering progresses, and surrounding circumstances are changing rapidly. The content handled in the life domain has also changed during the course of study revision, and in upper secondary school biology classes, content such as biotechnology, which is required under the new criteria, was included in the curriculum. In this research, based on these developments, we extracted the abilities to be trained in the life science education in kindergarten, elementary school, lower secondary school, and upper secondary school, with reference to the basic form in medical education. Furthermore, we integrated and organized the qualities and abilities similarly extracted in other areas of science and consolidated them into four domains of competence to nurture students in primary and secondary science education. Based on the domain of competence organized here, we devised and practiced learning activities in upper secondary school biology classes with the aim of nurturing the competencies that life science education should bear.