76 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 
A guess that is wrong is much better than no guess at all—the positive is 
better than the negative. There is hope for those who have been trained to 
think. The usual routine of lecture, quiz, and laboratory work, too often 
on separate parts of the same course, is not conducive to the best train- 
ing in logical thought. The questioning. inventive. creative spirit must 
be aroused to a greater extent than it has been in the past. To say that 
we haven't a place in our curriculum for such training. where the student 
may find himself, indicates all the greater need for a more fundamental 
rearrangement of our college courses. The student may have been fortu- 
nate enough to have found the profession best suited to his abilities, but 
very few find themselves in that profession. 
How can we overcome the prevalent view that a college training is a 
series of disconnected facts? Wouldn't the presentation of a gas engine to 
a group of freshmen engineers be of value in correlating numerous subse- 
quent pages of algebra, physics, and theories of dynamics? As most courses 
are now arranged. we have ample time to forget all by the time we are 
introduced to a concrete example of our profession. Again the realization 
that few chemical reactions go entirely as represented by the equation re- 
quires a rearrangement of the mental attitude of the chemist at a time 
when he needs to have his faculties at their best. 
It may be that our point of view errs. We do not appreciate all of the 
complexity existing in our universities, and we therefore do not presume to 
dictate any policy to our schools. We do look for results, however, and in- ~ 
dustry makes its judgment on that basis—something seems to be lacking in 
our college trained men. 
After discussing the question of undergraduate research with representa- 
tives of the schools of Indiana, the Scientech Club adopted the following 
resolution : 
RESOLVED: That the Scientech Club through its Research 
Committee exert its influence in promoting and encouraging a re- 
search atmosphere in the educational institutions of this state. As 
one means to this end, be it 
FURTHER RESOLVED: That efforts be made through the Re- 
search Committee for the inclusion, as part of the curriculum in all 
scientific courses of such institutions, of an approved thesis as a re- 
quirement for graduation; such thesis to embody the results of in- 
vestigation carried on during the fourth undergraduate year of study 
under proper faculty direction. and be it 
FURTHER RESOLVED: That in the fulfillment of such require- 
ment, emphasis be laid upon the training of the student. The investi- 
gation should be designed to ground the student in the fundamentals 
of scientific inquiry, irrespective of the application of the study to 
industrial or other immediate practical uses. 
Before proceeding further, we wish to emphasize the fact that we realize 
how essential is the cordial cooperation of the heads and faculties of the 
educational institutions of Indiana. Without that we cannot hope for 
progress. 
The spirit of the resolution was favorably received by the schools at our 
