NATURE-STUDY LESSONS OBSERVED 



Reported by M. A. BIGELOW 



The following is a careful report of two nature-study lessons 

 which were given in one of the New York City private schools last 

 September. It is not made up from lesson-plans, but has been 

 written out from notes made during the progress of the lesson and 

 dictated to the editor of The Review on the same day. It is 

 highly desirable that such reports, stenographic if possible, should 

 be made of some typical lessons. Such accounts of what has 

 actually been done will help many teachers much more than could 

 any theoretical discussions or outlined plans. 



The apparatus at hand for the lesson consisted of small wine- 

 glasses, one for each pupil, and hand-lenses. Each glass was filled 

 about half-full of water and contained a number of larval mosqui- 

 toes. There were ten or twelve pupils in the class, which was a 

 fifth grade with pupils averaging about ten years. 



The teacher introduced the lesson by saying: "Today we are 

 going to study the life-history of mosquitoes. We are going to 

 keep the mosquitoes in these glasses and watch them carefully as 

 we have already watched the life-history of butterflies. The 

 specimens which you have in the glasses are obviously not full- 

 grown mosquitoes but they are immature larvae. What is the 

 common name for the larval stage of the butterfly which we have 

 already studied? (Pupils answer, "caterpillar.") The problem 

 for this day is to find out how this mosquito larva moves in the 

 water, what it does in eating, feeding and moving. First look for 

 the head-end, then the tail-end, then more carefully for the 

 structure of each and find out how each is used. Also look at the 

 arrangement of hairs, feelers, eyes and such things. First, now, 

 see how the animal moves and in a few minutes I will give you 

 a chance to report to the class." 



After a minute or two of careful looking at the specimens in 

 the glasses several pupils were ready to report. This first answer 

 was typical: "The larva starts from the bottom to the surface, 

 wiggles his body, usually keeps the head-end first, and when he 

 gets to the surface he turns around and sticks his tail-end out of 

 the water." After some more watching, most of the pupils in 

 the class agreed that these were essentially the things which they 



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