x INTRODUCTION 



sort should be done in the high school before the regu- 

 larly accepted laboratory courses in physics, chemistry, 

 botany, zoology, and physiography are taken up ; 



2. That such elementary studies are advisable for all 

 pupils, whether the more advanced laboratory work is 

 taken up later or not; 



3. That, aside from the training value in such studies, 

 consideration should be given to the matter of content 

 with reference to the practical usefulness of the actual 

 knowledge acquired ; such consideration will demand the 

 study of elementary truths that might be classified under 

 several different heads, as physics, chemistry, physiology, 

 botany ; 



4. That useful familiarity may thus be acquired with 

 simple laboratory methods and apparatus which will save 

 time in the pursuance of more advanced courses; 



5. That some familiarity with the scientific method of 

 attack thus acquired in dealing with experiments under 

 several heads, as physics, physiology, botany, etc., will 

 tend to develop early the "scientific" habit which will be 

 of use in every department of study; 



6. That this, and the other aims enumerated, may be 

 reached better by such a course than by any course con- 

 fined to the facts and problems of any one of the fields 

 of study named above. 



It has been said, in the preface to a late text in high- 

 school physics, that the presentation of that subject in 

 the secondary school " should be the expansion of the 

 every-day life of the pupil into the broader experience or 



