BiGELow] NATURE-STUDY AND SCIENCE 1/ 



we want facts which we can correlate and classify with other facts 

 and so add to or illustrate principles of the science. Or putting 

 the whole matter in other words, nature-study appeals to us 

 aesthetically and morally — we feel the value of acquaintance with 

 natural objects and processes without perhaps being able to state 

 the reason why; but natural science appeals to us intellectually 

 and philosophically — we measure values of facts according to 

 their relations in our system of knowledge. We see that the dif- 

 ference is in the view-point, rather than in the materials ; but so 

 far as studies of nature concern the earliest stages of education 

 and popular information it is obvious that the difference is a 

 fundamental one. 



We have answered our leading questions. The difference be- 

 tween the nature-study of the elementary school and the natural 

 science of the higher schools should not be simply one of amount 

 of detail and simplicity of language, and true nature-study is quite 

 different from elementary science in the strict sense, because na- 

 ture-study should not deal with the introduction to formulated 

 principles at which all high-school and college text-books of real 

 elementary science aim directly. 



These considerations lead to the following summary by way 

 of condensed definitions : Nature-study is primarily the simple 

 observational study of common natural objects and processes for 

 the sake of personal acquaintance with the things which appeal 

 to human interest directly and independently of relations to or- 

 ganized science. Natural-science study is the close analytical and 

 synthetical study of natural objects and processes primarily for 

 the sake of obtaining knowledge of the general principles w^hich 

 constitute the foundations of modern sciences. 



Space here will not permit more than a statement of the propo- 

 sition that all studies of natural objects and processes in the ele- 

 mentary school should be nature-studies as defined in the discus- 

 sion above, because true elementary science with its very founda- 

 tion in classifications and generalizations is not adapted to pupils 

 as young as those in our elementary schools. This is not at all 

 a radical position, for the truth is that little real elementary 

 science has been successfully presented below the second year of 

 high schools^ most " sciences " in lower schools being simply so 

 designated because the word is popularly misunderstood as mean- 

 ing any study of nature. 



