ullrich] COURSE IN NATURE-STUDY 417 



with a seventh grade class. Each pupil was required before leaving 

 the *-oom to supply himself with notebook, pencil, and foot rule. 

 The last was to be used in the making of measurements on parts of 

 the corn plant. After arriving at the cornfield, each student was 

 asked to place himself next to some corn plant within easy hearing 

 distance of the teacher. After all were in position, the teacher 

 asked questions and the pupils made observations in answer to 

 these questions, recording their findings in their notebooks. 

 Points of information which students could not get from observa- 

 tion were supplied by the teacher. The next day a corn plant 

 was brought into the schoolroom, the same and other questions 

 were asked by the teacher, and answers were given orally by the 

 pupils. Such a lesson is invariably a success. The pupils have 

 had the opportunity to think out the solutions to the problems 

 without suggestions from classmates or the facial emanations of 

 the teacher who is frequently too eager, without being aware of it, 

 to have pupils express themselves in terms of his own reaction 

 rather than those of the pupils. After pupils have developed the 

 power of observation of nature materials out-of-doors, and the 

 teacher feels free and easy with a class in the field, a much less 

 formal procedure may yield larger educational returns. 



In this stressing of the use of concrete materials and the excur- 

 sion method as the first approach, the question arises as to whether 

 or not pupils, especially in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth 

 grades should read on Nature-Study topics? Pupils in these 

 grades should read, but they should not read for information until 

 they have become interested in certain aspects of the subject 

 through the study of concrete materials. Even after the reading 

 has commenced there should be constant reference to the things 

 themselves for verification of the points presented in the reading. 



I the course in Nature-Study with prospective teachers gives 

 the materials of the subject, the aims and purposes, a course or 

 courses of study for the grades and the principles that underlie 

 their organization, the best methods of instruction with special aid 

 in conducting excursions for a first hand contact with nature, the 

 course will not be complete unless it aids the teachers directly in the 

 utilization of all of these elements in teaching Nature-Study to 

 children. It is entirely possible for a teacher to know Nature- 

 Study and to be able to talk felicitously about how to teach the 

 subject and yet manifest awkwardness and uncertainty when put 



