DISCUSSIONS 



Organization of Nature- Study Lessons. The suggestions in the 

 October and November 1907 issues of this magazine will be help- 

 ful to all teachers who attempt to organize nature-study facts 

 into lessons. However, there is a possible danger in such outlines 

 or formulas in that teachers may fall into a deadening routine. 

 Also, the best of formulas for lessons may at times fail to center 

 attention on the most important or most interesting point and 

 may fail in pointing the way to the big problem which might be 

 chosen for study. As an example of a lesson plan organized 

 quite independently of the formula approved by Professor Guyer 

 and by Dr. Taylor, the following study of radishes may be 

 described : 



Two years ago one of the graduate students in Teachers College 

 planned to raise some vegetables in the greenhouse and radishes 

 were chosen because of their many advantages for such work. In 

 order to have some problem as a center around which to organize 

 the work, the attention of the children was called to the fact that 

 radishes are grown under glass by gardeners near New York City 

 and that the most important problem with which such gardeners 

 must deal is the selection of the most profitable radishes which 

 can be grown under glass in the winter. By reference to the seed 

 catalogues it was pointed out to the children that there are a great 

 manv possibilities in selecting varieties. There are radishes 

 which are scarlet, red, white, yellow and black and mixed colors 

 and any of these colors may be found in varieties which are 

 turnip-shaped, oval or long forms; and that by combining color 

 and form it is possible to pick out many distinct varieties of 

 radishes. Seeds of ten of these varieties were chosen and the ten 

 packages were mixed in the schoolroom. The children planted 

 them in boxes in the greenhouse and after about twenty-four days 

 the plants were ready for the lesson. It was pointed out to the 

 children that the market gardeners must consider the following 

 things: 



First, what variety comes to maturity in the shortest time, 

 because of course this makes possible more crops in the year. 



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