126 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [2 : 4 _ AP kil, . ., ■■ 



Nature-Study and Agriculture. Eighteen weeks. Laboratory work, field 

 work and readings. Scientific methods are used in the study of the familiar 

 things of the farm. The course is intended especially for those students who are 

 candidates for the elementary certificate. The student is expected to acquire 

 such a habit of looking at things as will make him able to manipulate, to judge, 

 to know and to appreciate things not only for their money value, but for their 

 scientific, moral, educational and intrinsic value. 



Nature-Study (Plants and Animals). Nine weeks. Field work, laboratory 

 original observations with written reports. The couise is intended to make the 

 Student familial with the method and the matter suited for nature work in the 

 elementary schools. The student is expected to do the work as he should 

 require his own pupils to do it when he undertakes to teach the subject, more 

 now being demanded of him by way of independent laboratory work and famil- 

 iarity with library sources of information and general literature properly intro- 

 duced in connection with nature-study. 



Science Methods. Nine weeks, Senior year. Laboratory work, reading, 

 written reports. The aims of this course are : (a) to give the student some skill 

 in laboratory technique; (b) to develop a rational method of teaching nature- 

 study. 



a. Technique is acquired in connection with the study of the developing tad- 

 pole and germination of seeds. It consists in preparing histological material, 

 sectioning, staining and mounting microscopic slides, in demonstration of the 

 circulation of the blood, and the preparation of the normal solutions and re- 

 agents, the use of the automatic and the hand microtome and the preparation of 

 mounted plant tissues. 



b. The nature-study method is taught by the study of a concrete object in 

 which the natural steps in the study of an object are shown and actually taken. 

 Reading and discussions of a book on nature-study method will occupy part of 

 the time in this work. Each member of the class is expected to make a careful 

 study of a bird and to present a written account of his observations. 



NORTHERN ILLINOIS STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, DEKALB, ILL. 



In the Department of Science the courses conducted by Professor 

 F. L. Charles and assistants, include meteorology, nature-study, 

 zoology, human physiology, botany, physics, chemistry, and elements 

 of agriculture. The aim of the department is to prepare teachers of 

 nature-study, and it is the purpose so to unify the different courses as 

 to make each contribute to this end without sacrificing the peculiar 

 interests of any subject. 



Meteorology. Five hours for twelve weeks. 



A course in elementary science, with special reference to weather phenomena 

 Recording of local data; physics and chemistry of the atmosphere; forecasting; 

 weather study in the grades. 



Nature-Study. Four hours for twelve weeks. 



Identification and study of birds during migrating and nesting season. Birds 

 as fitted to mode of life, bird calendar. The school garden. Garden calendar. 



