PREFACE 



This book is written in the belief that science instruction in 

 the first high-school year should not aim primarily to survey 

 the entire field of nature and present scattered bits and choice 

 morsels from every special science in order that the pupil may 

 decide which of the special sciences he likes best and which he 

 will omit. Nor should first-year general science be regarded 

 primarily as an introduction to, or a foundation for, the special 

 science he may later study. While it should, in a large meas- 

 ure, accomplish both these results it has a vastly more 

 important function to perform. The primary function of first- 

 year general science is to give, as far as possible, a rational, 

 orderly, scientific understanding of the pupil's environment 

 to the end that he may, to some extent, correctly interpret 

 that environment and be master of it. It must be justified by 

 its own intrinsic value as a training for life's work. 

 - General science has been accused of being a hodgepodge, an 

 incoherent mass of science materials without form, or con- 

 tinuity, or order of development. In this course a conscious 

 effort has been made to select a straight and solid track and 

 to proceed in a well-ordered, common sense manner along it. 

 The train of thought, as it were, runs upon, and is guided by 

 two parallel rails, the one physical, ENERGY, the other sociolog- 

 ical, HUMAN WELFARE. These two supporting and guiding 

 rails are everywhere strongly bound together. 



The topics presented have chiefly to do with the school life 

 and home life of the pupil; they are essentially projects to be 

 solved. Being topics with which the pupil is already more or 

 less familiar, they have real significance and meaning to him. 

 Only such matters as have vital relation to our experiences 

 can have real significance to any of us. In dealing with home 

 and school environment the laws and principles of the physical 



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