giver] THE QUESTION OF METHOD IN NATURE-STUDY 229 



What questions do children ask about animals? They would 

 run about as follows: What does it do? How does it do it? 

 What's it good for? How does it work? In other words, a child 

 is interested in structure only as applied to action. He wants to 

 know the business of animals and how they attend to it. 



It is true that an ordinary crawfish, in terms of structure, is an 

 astacoid macruran decapod, but never mind that. What the 

 child is interested in is that it eats, and what and how it eats. 

 He soon learns that it can protect itself, as is evidenced by the 

 wary way he goes about picking it up after being once nipped by 

 its pincers. He sees, too, that it is adjusted to its physical sur- 

 roundings, or in other words, that it is adapted to live largely in 

 the water. He can perceive all of these things and more without 

 even suspecting that it is an astacoid macruran decapod, and he 

 will have made considerable advancement in nature-study too. 



The following simple outline is, I think, applicable in teaching, 

 from the primary school to the university, for it can be followed 

 out in just as small or as great detail as is desirable. In actual 

 practice it has worked very satisfactorily in a number of the 

 Cincinnati public schools. It is based entirely upon what animals 

 do. 



Animals, from their own point of view, have two and only two 

 occupations in the world. These are, (1) to care for themselves, 

 and (2) to care for their offspring. Consequently, every import- 

 ant thing to be seen about an animal has to do with one or the 

 other of these pursuits. This is as true of internal as of external 

 structures; in the nature-study work, however, we confine our 

 attention for the most part to external features. 



For taking care of themselves, animals must possess organs 

 (a) for procuring and transforming food, (b) for protecting them- 

 selves from enemies, and (c) for adapting themselves to surround- 

 ing physical conditions. 



This outline will be more easily remembered if studied in 

 tabular form : 



The Business of Animals 



I . To Care for Themselves. 



a. Food: finding, securing and transforming. 



b. Self-protection. 



c. Adjustment to physical surroundings. 



II. To Care for their Offspring. 



