NATURE-STUDY AND HIGH-SCHOOL SCIENCE 



BY HERBERT BROWNELL 

 State Normal School, Peru, Nebraska 



To the teacher in the normal school come those who have 

 various degrees of preparation in the high-school sciences, and 

 the problem of fitting them, some for teaching science in high 

 schools and others in the grades, makes the teacher appreciate 

 keenly the unsatisfactory condition of the science work of the 

 elementary and secondary schools, especially as regards the pre- 

 paration of those who are to teach it, and its differentiation in 

 the stages of advancement through the schools. 



By way of illustration of distinction between the nature- 

 study of the grades and high-school science teaching, both as 

 regards matter and method, the Lessons on the Moon, used in my 

 own class in Elementary Science, are here given. The study of 

 the moon in the class in astronomy, based though it is on ob- 

 servations made by the pupils themselves under direction of the 

 teacher, needs no particular discussion, even for purposes of 

 contrast. 



In nature work there is chosen from the immediate life-sur- 

 roundings what is readily comprehended by the children, what 

 will best serve to train them in being close, intelligent observers 

 of such surroundings and of what goes on in the w jrld about them, 

 and what at the same time provokes thought, arousing the 

 spirit of inquiry as to the significance of what is observed. The 

 facts are not grouped with reference to any branch of science; 

 the matter selected and its manner of presentation is made to 

 conform very largely to the mental needs and abilities of those 

 taught. In the high school the student is to adapt himself as best 

 he may to a mastery of the facts of the science, grouped and 

 classified according to some system and in accordance with the 

 laws and principles of such science. And whether the change in 

 primary purposes of science work in grades and in high school — 

 an adaptation of matter and method to what best promotes the 

 rapid development of an intelligent being, or, on the other hand, 

 the mastery of a certain mass of classified knowledge — be made 

 gradually or abruptly, a radical difference in such science teach- 

 ing exists and should be kept well in mind. 



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