THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



Vol. 18 April, 1922 No. 4 



The Summer Camp and Nature- Study 



William Gould Vinal 



Rhode Island College of Education 



Paper given at the Annual Meeting of the American Nature- 

 Study Society, Toronto, Canada, Thursday, December, 29, 1921. 



In 1920 the National Association of the Directors of Girls 

 Camps voted to hold a Nature Training School for nature councilors. 

 This school has been through two successful sessions and is now- 

 thought of as a permanent institution. 



It is a significant thing that the course has been termed NATURE- 

 LORE rather than NATURE-STUDY. The words study, teacher, 

 class, lessons, etc. are tabooed in camp. Not that study is less — 

 it is deeper. The aim.s of camp cannot be discounted because of 

 this change in vocabulary. It is a challenge for the teacher to 

 investigate the why of the change. 



Nature-lore is possibly the goal but hardly ever the realization 

 of Nature-study. Both are organized nature-learning. Just as 

 Nature-study is not Elementary Science, — so too, Nature-lore 

 is not Nature-study. The point of attack and the results can never 

 be the same, until the schools have their camps and their oppor- 

 tunities of forest recreation. Detailed comparisons will be given 

 to show the present differences in method and what we may expect 

 as results. 



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