SCIENCE TEACHING. 171 



with expert advice. Having regard to the fact that no system of technical 

 instruction can be efficient for a country until the general schools of the country 

 have incorporated in their regular curriculum a sound system of teaching in 

 science and drawing, the Department felt that part of its first year's endow- 

 ment for technical instruction which could not be expended on schemes before 

 ist April, 1901, might be applied in aiding the Secondary Schools to acquire 

 the apparatus and equipment necessary for the new Programme. They accor- 

 dingly, with the concurrence of the Board of Technical Instruction, made such 

 aid a feature of schemes in most localities throughout the country. They had, 

 moreover, a small allowance for apparatus and equipment under the Science 

 and Art grant, which was similarly applied. At the same time the Depart- 

 ment had prepared dimension drawings of typical laboratories and issued 

 them to the heads of schools asking for them. Suggestions with regard to 

 the equipment, and a list of indispensable apparatus for the first two years' 

 work in Science, accompanied by a statement of the probable cost, were issued 

 to the Managers of all Secondary Schools in Ireland. Further, the schools 

 were invited to send dimensioned drawings of the rooms proposed to be con- 

 verted into laboratories. At the moment of writing one hundred cases of 

 provision of laboratories have been dealt with. A suggested arrangement 

 (with accompanying notes, hints, and advice with regard to equipment and 

 necessary apparatus) has been supplied to the school. Where necessary, an 

 officer of the Technical Instruction Branch of the Department visited the school 

 and gave the Managers the benefit of his experience on the spot. The arrange- 

 ments finally decided on have been approved. The number of laboratories to 

 be dealt with in this way is daily increasing, and shows that the work of 

 Science and Art instruction in Day Secondary Schools is largely to be taken up 

 in the coming session. 



As to the provision of teachers, it was decided to meet this difficulty by 

 holding short courses of instruction during the months 

 Special Courses for of July and August, with a view to enabling teachers who 

 Teachers. who had already received a training in Science to obtain 



the necessary knowledge and skill to give the first year's 

 instruction in the new Programme of Introductory Physics or Drawing. It 

 should be understood that these short courses were not to be given to teachers 

 in a subject v^'^ith which they had not been previously conversant. They were, 

 rather, courses to train teachers in a special application of a subject which they 

 were already qualified to teach. It was found, on communicating with the 

 schools, that there were a very considerable number of teachers who had 

 already had sufficient training to enable them to benefit by the special course. 

 Further courses will be given to the same, and to other teachers, to prepare 

 them for giving the second and further years' instruction in the new Pro- 

 gramme. 



Courses in Experimental Science (Introductory Physics) were held in 

 Dublin, Belfast, and Cork. A course of twenty days' instruction, from 10 a.m. 

 to 4 p.m. each day (Saturdays, 10 a.m. to i p.m.), was arranged for at the 

 Royal College of Science, Dublin, in charge ot Professor Barrett and seven 

 assistants. For this course seventy teachers were accepted. A course for 

 forty teachers, also in Introductory Physics, was arranged for at Queen's 

 College, Belfast, in charge of Professor Morton and three assistants ; and a 

 similar course, also for forty teachers, was arranged for at the Christian 

 Brothers' School, Cork. The Professor in charge at this centre was Mr. John 

 Buchanan, d.sc, of Gordon's College, Aberdeen. He was assisted by three 

 demonstrators. These courses have been most successful. 



With a view to placing similar opportunities for instruction within the reach 



