skill. n,,] NATURE-STUDY IN SAN DIEGO NORMAL 147 



that tree after it has been cut down and taken to the paper fac- 

 tory or the saw-mill is a vastly more suggestive and many-sided 

 consideration. "We are still dealing with nature, but nature now 

 in the hands of man. We are taking into account human nature 

 and are close upon the realm of geography. 



As an illustration of this sort of nature-study, suppose we take 

 the building of a house. From the drawing and blue printing of 

 the plans to the planting of a lawn and suitable shrubbery the 

 lessons may be made exceedingly instructive and interesting. 

 Xo one would deny that a study of minerals is legitimate nature- 

 study. But the mixing of paint and the preparation of plumber's 

 and tinner's materials is applied mineralogy, and therefore 

 doubly valuable. The drawing of plans, though of practical 

 value and great interest to older children, is not in itself nature- 

 study, but the making of a blue print is a natural phenomenon, 

 the studv of which leads the way to that most interesting realm of 

 nature, photography. The study of different kinds of woods 

 used in the construction of a house forms a fitting close to the 

 studv of the trees themselves. 



There are physical laws which find themselves illustrated in the 

 plumbing, the gas-fitting, and the wiring. In short, although 

 the house is a work of art rather than of nature, the artisan em- 

 ploys the materials and forces of nature, so with the proper 

 treatment, instruction in house building may be made excellent 

 nature-stud}'. 



The relationships existing between successive topics in the fol- 

 lowing brief outline may not be apparent to the reader, but in the 

 teaching their interdependence is seen. As for example, why 

 bees are taken after flowers is clear when we consider that the life 

 of plants is largely dependent upon the pollen distributers. 



In the selection of material throughout the whole course, the 

 controlling thought has been to lead up through plant and ani- 

 mal life and the conditions that surround them to the higher life 

 of man and his environment, including those conditions which are 

 necessary for perfect development which we call hygiene. 



In the third and fourth grades the germination of seeds and the 

 growth of plants is taken along with conditions of soil and air 

 which make such life possible, and those animal forms which are 

 intimately associated in some way with such plant life. 



