DEMONSTRATION PLAY SCHOOL—-HETHERINGTON. 703 
For the larger children, excursions cover the three ideas of adven- 
ture, nature observation, and civic observation, as follows: (a) Half- 
day “hikes” or week-end camping trips, including outing or ‘“scout- 
ing” arts; (b) trips to the fields, woods, and bodies of water, or to 
farms, or to plant or animal experimental stations; with observations 
on the geographical features, on plants and animals and their breeding 
processes; with collections, maps, etc.; (¢) trips to industrial and 
commercial institutions, to historic places, to civic institutions and 
centers, to public-service centers, etc., each with investigations. 
From these natural activities the larger geography expands. 
(2) The second half of the environmental and nature activities, 
nature experimentations, arise from curiosity about nature and the 
experimental manipulation of natural forces. They fall into three 
groups: (a) There is playing and experimenting with physical 
nature,‘ namely, playing with water, air, heat, mechanical devices, 
sound, light, and electricity. These activities begin in the same 
manipulating tendencies that are the foundation of the manual 
activities, but diverge under the control of different instincts. They 
grade naturally by age periods and through leadership develop prob- 
lems in physics. (6) There is playing and experimenting with ani- 
mals: namely, playing with pets; feeding and caring for animals, 
training them; capturing, raising, and taming wild animals; breeding 
animals, etc. (c) There is playing and experimenting with plant 
nature, namely, planting, raising, and caring for plants and flowers; 
experimental gardening to find out what nature will do and also for 
the economic value of the produce. 
The two latter groups of nature activities with the field observation 
and collections give all the essential elements in the relations of plants 
and animals to the life of man, and give, through leadership, the 
natural basis and enthusiastic interest in the problem of nature study 
and ‘civic biology.” 
The specialized sciences have no place in child life. These nature 
activities give what is natural to child life and interest and lay the 
foundation for a more advanced study later. 
4 The content of these physical experimental plays will be better illustrated by the following outline: 
Water: Playing with water, pouring, wading, splashing, watching objects in water, throwing objects into 
water, building dams and water wheels, watching the action of water on land, ‘‘erosion models,” etc., which 
develop problems in fluids. Air: Playing with air, sailboats, kites, windmills, aeroplanes, which develop 
problems in air pressure, air currents, wind, temperature, humidity, rainfall, ete. Heat: Watching fire, 
making fires, observing friction and heat, playing with toy steam engines, thermometers, which develop 
problems in heat, combustion, expansion and contraction, and other effects of heat. Mechanical devices: 
Playing with hoops, tops, pulleys, wheels, toy machines, gyroscopes, pendulums, levers, watching thrown 
objects, balancing objects, etc., which develop problems in motor dynamics. Sound: Vocalization, beating 
and drumming, blowing on toy instruments, ‘‘listening to shells,” speaking tubes, and telephones, experi- 
menting with conduction through air, water, and timbers, with vibrating bodies, echoes, ete., which de- 
velop problems in vibration, noises, tones, music, ete. Light: Playing with reflectors, mirrors, prisms, 
lenses, water refraction, glasses, telescopes, which develop problems in light, color, optics, time, etc. Elec- 
tricity: Experimenting and playing with magnets, batteries, induction coils, telephones, telegraph instru- 
ments, dynamos, electric motors, electric lights, etc., which present problems in electrodynamics. 
