PAPERS OX CHEMISTRY AXD PHYSICS 247 



ers will continue doubtless to adhere strictly to the reci- 

 tation of the laws and principles from the text and to the 

 performing of only those exercises which are outlined in 

 the manual. 



Is it not possible that the writer of the letter quoted at 

 the beginning of this paper lacked the self-confidence and 

 initiative needed to stimulate him to investigate the mat- 

 ter as to whether hot water or cold water freezes first be- 

 cause his training has never included any work in re- 

 search 1 This paper is no appeal for the injection of ordi- 

 nary university research work into the high school cur- 

 riculimi. It merely makes the suggestion that if the 

 spirit of the research worker and his attitude toward 

 unsolved problems were frequently and skillfully in- 

 jected into high school science classes and always applied 

 toward clearing up situations found in the student's en- 

 vironment or in the community, there would be less ster- 

 eotyped, uninteresting and unprofitable science teaching. 



Is this picture of fitting at least a part of science study 

 in the high school onto the environment of the students 

 farfetched and visionaiy? Is there a science teacher in 

 this audience who has not felt an immediately stimulating 

 interest arise in the class when some student springs a 

 vital question which relates the general topic under 

 discussion to a concrete situation in which they are all 

 concerned? Recently I had such an experience. We 

 had studied the short-distance and the long-distance tele- 

 graph systems. One young man, without any suggestion 

 on my part, went to a TVestem Union station and asked 

 questions. When he reported to the class that the op- 

 erator told him that the Western Union Telegraph Com- 

 pany had discarded the local circuit from many small sta- 

 tions on their lines and were largely using "main line" 

 sounders, except at central stations, the interest of the 

 class was much aroused. ^Yhen the initiative for study 

 comes largely from the science class itself, then we shall 

 have more productive and more educative science teach- 

 ing. 



