2 1 4 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE W [< ■ 7-oct., 1908 



be given four periods a week during the first year of the curriculum . 

 Several acres of the large grounds will be devoted to school- 

 gardens. The departments of Nature-study and Geography 

 are in charge of Dr. Clarence H. Robison. 



At the Trenton Normal School one half year courses in botany 

 and zoology are given during the first year, five periods a week. 

 The Department of Biology, in which Professor Apgar rendered 

 such long service, is now in charge of Dr. Robert G. Leavitt. 



For the past two seasons a Summer School of Agriculture, 

 Industrial Art and Science has been held at Cape May. Courses 

 have been given in elementary agriculture, home economics and 

 manual training. During the season of 1908 the work in ele- 

 mentary agriculture was under the charge of Professor H. 0. 

 Sampson of the II. S. Department of Agriculture. 



ELEMENTARY SCIENCE IN THE SCHOOLS OF 



NEWARK, N. J. 



By DAVID B. CORSON, 



Assistant City Superintendent. 



The claim is made by some that elementary science should be 

 in the curriculum as a supplement to geography or some other 

 branch, but it should be taught for itself or not at all. That it 

 does correlate with other branches is apparent. It is interrelated 

 with the geography in the study of the various animals, first 

 as types in the environment and then in the different zones as 

 related to the types. Geography calls for a study of ocean cur- 

 rents and winds, tides, and climate in general. These various 

 topics can be clearly apprehended only when their causes are 

 understood. Their causes are solar and not terrestrial. A proper 

 course in elementary science requires the observation and study 

 of the sky, including the sun, moon and the planets. The child 

 will better understand the earth when he realizes it is a planet; 

 that is, that there are other heavenly bodies beside the earth 

 that revolve around the sun and are influenced by gravitation, 

 solar light, and heat. The study of trees is both an elementary 

 science and a drawing topic, and the one subject reinforces the 

 other. The subject also correlates very closely with the music 

 in the first and second years inasmuch as many of the songs 

 used in these lower grades relate to birds and flowers and other 



