Bulletin 142. Max. 1905. 



Ontario Agricultural College and Experimental Farm. 



MACDONALD INSTITUTE. ^ 



OUTLINES OF NATURE STUDIES. 



By William Lochhead, B.A., M.S., Professor of Biology and Geology. 



TO THE TEACHER. 



This Bulletin is published for you (not for the children), with the 

 hope that it may help you in your own studies of Nature. It is not 

 intended that you deal with all of the studies outlined in the bulletin, 

 as the subjects are purposely given a wide range to meet the needs and 

 aptitudes of teachers as a professional body. The questions are for you 

 to answer as you investigate each problem presented. When you are 

 familiar with the problem you will, if you are a good teacher, frame 

 other and better questions for your pupils. 



Nature-Study from your view-point as a teacher is Natural Study, 

 a method or means of developing mental power in the pupil under the 

 careful guidance of the teacher, by encouraging close observation of 

 the things of Nature which lie about him, and by begetting an attitude 

 of inquiry into their meaning so that the truth is discovered through 

 the exercise of the pupil's own self-activities. 



It is quite true that there are other A^alues in Nature-Study, but 

 they are secondary, viewed from a pedagogical standpoint. With many 

 persons the acquisition of information about the things of Nature by 

 a study of Nature is the chief aim ; while with others the development 

 of a sympathy with, and an interest in the common things that surround 

 them, is the only value in its sudy. These secondary values are very 

 great, but they can be realized as a matter of course by making method 

 the chief aim of Nature-Study. Now we have Sympathy, Information, 

 and Method, but the greatest of these is Method. 



It is your duty, as a teacher, to develop this method of study among 

 your scholars. You should know the mental characteristics of every 

 child in your school, if you are to get the best* results. You should 

 also have a fair knowledge of the subject which you are asking the chil- 

 dren to investigate, else your probing, sustaining, question, and your 

 direction of the children's work will soon cease. The great needs of 

 the teacher at the present juncture are knowledge of the subject-matter, 

 and a correct meaning of the Nature-Study Method. 



