42 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



"(b) Enable inexperienced teachers to secure at the outset 

 a correct point of view. 



"(c) Place the needs of the high school before all agencies 

 that are training teachers for positions in high schools. 



"(d) Secure college entrance recognition for courses that 

 meet actual needs of high school pupils." 



From this statement of aims the welding of the several 

 sciences into a unified course is not, apparently, a definite and 

 immediate purpose. Whether this result ensues is a question. 



To our personal knowledge there is no other broad move- 

 ment looking toward the reorganization of secondary edu- 

 cation, although departmental sections throughout the coun- 

 try are engaged thereon. Notable among these is the Central 

 Association of Science and Mathematics Teachers, a com- 

 mittee of which is at present working up a two year course in 

 general science. Its preliminary report, which was presented 

 at the Des Moines meeting last Thanksgiving, stated in a 

 very general way the aims in this two year "stem" course. A 

 successful "stem" course in general science has been worked 

 out by W. K. Eikenberry of the School of Education, Uni- 

 versity of Chicago; it was adopted by the Agricultural Sec- 

 tion of the Illinois High School Conference last November 

 and is outlined in the current (January) issue of School Sci- 

 ence and Mathematics. 



From the accounting of the plans of the National Educa- 

 tional Association and of the Central Association of Science 

 and Mathematics Teachers, and that of other isolated cases, it 

 appears that with the possible exception of this Illinois Acad- 

 emy of Science, no organization has yet considered the form- 

 ulation of a general course in high school science in which 

 there shall be not only a unity or commonness of purpose and 

 method, but even more, a close articulation or, to put it more 

 plainly, an almost entire absence of demarcation between the 

 natural sciences. 



As heretofore given, physiology, botany, chemistry, and 

 others have been taught and studied as independent units. 

 When several of these sciences were in a course there was a 

 strong staccato effect, a marked hiatus between them and a 

 full stop at the end of each study ; often there were many of 

 these within the subject. Thus while a so-called science course 

 was listed the pupil studied only separate units, units just as 

 separate and distinct as Latin and history, as mathematics and 

 English. The broad scientific truths or generalizations prob- 



