vi Preface 



The best method of presenting the principles to the 

 children was the next problem. The study of the ques- 

 tions asked had shown that the children's interests were 

 centered in the explanation of a wide variety of familiar 

 facts in the world about them. It seemed evident, there- 

 fore, that a presentation of the principles that would 

 answer the questions asked would be most interesting 

 to the child. Experience with many different classes 

 had shown that it is not necessary to subordinate these 

 explanations of what children really wish to know to 

 other methods of instruction of doubtful interest value. 



Obviously the quantitative methods of the high school 

 and college were unsuitable for pupils of this age. We 

 want children to be attracted to science, not repelled by 

 it. The assumption that scientific method can be taught 

 to children by making them perform uninteresting, quan- 

 titative experiments in an effort to get a result that 

 will tally with that given in the textbook is so palpably 

 unfounded that it is scarcely necessary to prove its failure 

 by pointing to the very unscientific product of most of 

 our high school science laboratories. 



After a good deal of experimenting with children in a 

 number of science classes, the method followed in this 

 book was developed. Briefly, it is as follows : 



At the head of each section are several of the questions 

 which, in part, prompted the writing of the section. The 

 purpose of these is to let the children know definitely 

 what their goal is when they begin a section. The 

 fact that the questions had their origin in the minds 

 of children gives reasonable assurance that they will to 

 some extent appeal to children. These questions in 



