396 NA T URE-STUD 1 ' RE VIE W \ 1 1 :9— Dec. , 19 15 



The lessons proved valuable to the student observers, for while 

 the teacher in the organization of her material had in mind all the 

 problems worked out, yet the lessons were presented so that the 

 children raised the problems for themselves and in most cases 

 succeeded in solving them by following the teacher's suggestions. 

 Another bit of worth while training came with the fact that a con- 

 siderable period of time was required to solve some of the problems. 



Training to Teach Nature-Study in Ontario 



By John Dearness, M.A. 

 London, Ontario 



In response to the Editor's request for a symposium on the 

 Training of Teachers for the teaching of nature-study I have to 

 state that the seven Normal Schools of this Province of Ontario 

 are similarly organized and centrally directed, hence what can be 

 said of the training in any one of them applies in a general way to 

 the training in all of them . 



In the prescribed schedule of lessons five lessons per week are 

 allotted to the group — physics, chemistry, biology, geography and 

 hygiene — that is on the average an hour a week to each from the 

 first of September to the first of June. The training is completed 

 in one term. Nature-study and Agriculture are not mentioned in 

 the list of main courses but they are supposed to be worked in on 

 the time of this group sufficiently to deal with the following topics: 



"The character and scope of nature-study; its relation to formal 

 science; its correlation with other subjects. 



"The choice of material for lessons for pupils of different grades, 

 and for varying conditions in rural and urban schools; uses and 

 limitations of books, pictures, models, collections, etc., supplemen- 

 tary materials such as stories, literature, etc. 



"Nature-study as a method; special characteristics of a typical 

 nature-study lesson; uses and limitations of records of observations; 

 directions for conducting school excursions. The study of special 

 topics dealing with materials of nature-study and illustrating 

 methods of presentation in all grades of public schools, the topics 

 to be typical and to be selected from various grades and depart- 

 ments of the Public School course of study ; the relation of feeling 

 to knowledge in nature-study work. 



