THE PROJECT 19 



memorizing any number of facts, for by scientific methods 

 such as these, people make discoveries which are of value 

 to the world. 



The project and how it may be worked out. You are 

 the one to plan your own project and work out the prob- 

 lems connected with it. It will not mean so much to you 

 unless you want to know about the thing you are trying to 

 do. Books, people, and experiments may all help toward 

 the achievement of your project, but you must carry it 

 through yourself. Take, for example, a project to deter- 

 mine the best methods of cleaning a room. This would 

 mean investigation on your part of the construction of 

 brooms, wet and dry dust cloths, dustless dusters, carpet 

 sweepers, vacuum cleaners, and of the methods used in per- 

 forming the work. Not only should the mechanical work- 

 ing of these devices be understood, but also the amount of 

 time and labor spent in cleaning a room with each must 

 be estimated or measured separately. We would naturally 

 be interested to know also how much this time is worth, 

 and that should go into our estimate of the value of the 

 different methods. But more important is the knowledge 

 of how much dust is raised by each method and the 

 relative number of bacteria which would be stirred about 

 in the air. To understand this it would be necessary for 

 us not only to know something about the bacteria them- 

 selves, but also to perform experiments with a series of 

 prepared culture dishes by which we would determine the 

 relative number of bacteria in the air during each method 

 of cleaning. These culture dishes may be obtained from 

 the board of health, or a good laboratory, or a culture 

 medium made and the dishes filled and sterilized in the 

 school laboratory. Eventually you have a series of facts 



