CUERENT TENDENCIES IN SCIENCE EDUCATION 

 IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS 



J. L. Pricer^ State Normal University 



The last uieetiug of this Academy was devoted largely to 

 a most admirable ami thorough discussion of the subject 

 of science education, and under ordinary circumstances, 

 it would be unnecessary to discuss the subject again so 

 soon. But it is true that during the last twelve months, 

 some things have happened, in connection with this im- 

 portant matter, which are quite new and which need to be 

 reported. 



I can present these new developments in better light, if 

 I may first review briefly, the main features of the more or 

 less blind struggle toward better things which the students 

 of these problems have gone thru during the past fifteen 

 years. Altho I have been more or less engaged in these 

 struggles during these years, I shall endeavor on this 

 occasion, to view the whole matter as objectively as pos- 

 sible. 



Fifteen years ago, all was comparative peace and con- 

 tentment in this field. Secondary school science was 

 viewed as simply so much subject matter, which had been 

 fairly well crystalized and standardized, and which was to 

 be imparted bodily to young people, at least partly by the 

 laboratory method. The standard high school curriculum 

 in science, here in the middle west, consisted of half-year 

 courses in physiology and physical geography in the first 

 year; half-j^ear courses in zoology and botany in the sec- 

 ond year ; and year courses in chemistry and physics in the 

 third and fourth years, and most students took all the 

 science offered. About the only evidences of unrest at the 

 time consisted of a little jockeying on the part of the 

 friends of the several sciences for a better position in the 

 curriculum for the favored subject, the fourth year of the 

 high school course, being the one most desired. 



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