grant] NATURE-STUDY IN A RURAL SCHOOL 341 



as we could. We also caught ten out doors. We could noc see 

 that those raised in the colored boxes varied any more than did 

 those caught with the net. 



Nature-Study in a Rural School 



Mabel L. Grant 



Nature-study has been the topic of so many lectures and maga- 

 zine articles that it has ceased to be a new subject, and yet it is a 

 subject that can never grow old. As nature herself takes on new 

 forms of life from day to day so should the study of these Nature 

 forms and their changes awaken new interest and new sympathies. 



There was a time when it seemed that I could not teach Nature- 

 Study because there was no subject matter at hand; but I have 

 come to realize that the out-of-door world furnishes all the subject 

 matter that one can well use. Of course one needs reference books 

 to help identify specimens and I would highly recommend the leaf- 

 lets sent out by the New York State College of Agriculture and 

 Comstock's "How to Know the Butterflies." It is helpful and 

 interesting to refer to these while studying the life history of moths, 

 butterflies and other insects. 



When I began to teach nature-study seven years ago I gave out a 

 certain amount of work for the children to learn and pretended to 

 have a recitation once a week, but I never tried to connect, nor to 

 have the children connect the facts learned with the real life of the 

 specimens studied. As a result the subject had no interest for 

 either the teacher or pupils. 



One time, several years after my first year's experience with the 

 subject, I found my class and myself much interested in some speci- 

 men that had accidentally come before us. After that I made an 

 effort to study the specimen with the written work and from that 

 time nature-study became a reality and interest in the work grew 

 very rapidly. 



When school work began in September, 191 1 , I had sixteen pupils 

 and all except three were ten years old and under. Early in the fall 

 we decided to make a collection of nature work. All specimens 

 were studied, the keyword being recognition in the first three 

 grades and adaptation in the intermediate. 



At the end of the year the work was sorted, mounted and labelled 

 by three different grades. The sixth grade had a collection of 



