NEW ^ 

 BOTANICAL 

 OARDbiN 



Ontario Agricultural College and Experimental Farm 



MACDONALD INSTITUTE 



Hints on Making Nature Collections in Public and High Schools 



By W. H. MULDREW, B.A., D. Paed, Dean of the Macdonald Institute 



INTRODUCTORY. 



A short time aeo the Macdonald Institute issued its first leaflet to 

 teachers on the subject of Nature Study. The replies already received 

 show that such assistance as was there proposed is a very real need of 

 the schools, and will be appreciated by the teachers. 



The present bulletin treats one aspect of the subject with some 

 detail and is intended to be kept in the schools for permanent reference. 

 It may seem to emphasize the rural and agricultural sides of the question, 

 but this is inevitable from the nature of the subject. The surrounding 

 conditions of country life favor Nature Study for the same reasons that 

 cause Manual Training and Domestic Science to be welcomed in the 

 cities. This does not mean that Nature Study is to be ignored in the 

 urban schools, but ratlier that its development there will follow some- 

 what different lines. Other phases will be dealt with in later 

 numbers. 



As a centre of interest for the Nature Studies of a school, there is 

 nothing more helpful than a collection of suggestive things from the out- 

 door world. The value is, however, in the making and the using rather 

 than in the keepivg, and this bulletin is intended as a guide to teachers 

 a,nd pupils in beginning such work. We need hardly say that collections, 

 like books and other tools, are but the means, while the end is to be 

 found in the interest that is aroused and the thought that is 

 stimulated. 



It is not to be exp-'cted that all of these suggestions will be practic- 

 able in our schools at once. Teachers have many duties to take up their 

 time and attention, and Nature Study must be content with small be- 

 ginnings, until it can shew itself worthy of a place with the older sub- 

 jects of the school-room. The important thing is to make a beginning, 

 however small, and then to grow with the work as results may 

 warrant. 



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