152 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



and the second is included in my report, since the first and second 

 topics are closely related. 



I shall retain our original division of the topics in my discussion 

 and consider first the efifect of the demand for industrialism in 

 education upon the courses in pure science in the ordinary high 

 schools. The demand comes under various guises, such as 

 "practical courses," "vocational courses" and "applied courses." 

 Within the last two or three years great pressure has been 

 brought to bear upon teachers of the pure sciences to modify 

 these courses and make them more "practical," as it is usually 

 put. How this pressure has been met, is the question which I 

 have set myself to answer in so far as the scope and means of 

 such an investigation as this can determine. 



It seemed best to begin by studying the situation in Chicago, 

 since I am well acquainted with the history of science teaching 

 in this city from the time of the inauguration of modern labora- 

 tory methods, and since also the evolution of science teaching in 

 Chicago is undoubtedly similar to its evolution elsewhere, except 

 that it is slower because of the larger bodies of people to move. 



There has been a slow evolution in methods of teaching the 

 various departments of science from the ver}- beginning of the 

 establishment of the laboratory. The present agitation has only 

 served to accelerate somewhat a movement already in progress. 

 At first there was insistence upon strict scientific methods — such 

 as the inductive process of observation and inference. A text- 

 book open in the laboratory was strictly forbidden. The study 

 of types with the emphasis on morphology was insisted upon. 

 The order of study was always evolutionary. Even the labora- 

 tory tables were copied from the style found in college labora- 

 tories. In fact, the entire course was modeled on the college 

 course — simply a slightly modified edition of the college course. 

 The tendency has been away from this hand-me-down college 

 work toward something specifically adapted to high school needs, 

 — a high school course in science suited to the experience, ability 

 and needs of the high school pupils. I think I can illustrate just 

 what this progress has been by taking one of the high school 

 sciences and comparing a former course used in Chicago with 

 one recently adopted. For this I shall take botany, since in most 

 or all of the other sciences, whether or not the experiences of the 

 home and daily life are utilized, is a matter of laboratory prac- 

 tice in the application of the topics of study, while in botany the 

 topics themselves give a hint as to the method used. In physics, 



