THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DBVOTED TO ALL PHASES OF NATURE-STUDY IN SCHOOLS 



Vol. 5 FEBRUARY, 1909 No. 2 



INDIANA NUMBER 



This number has been prepared under the editorial direction of 

 Professor Stanley Coulter, of Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. — 

 Managing Editor. 



NATURE -STUDY IN INDIANA 



By STANLEY COULTER 

 Dean, School of Science, Purdue University 



Work in nature-study has been carried on in Indiana since 

 1895. At first merely in scattered centers and in extremely de- 

 sultory and illy organized fashion. Later, chiefly through the 

 influence of the leaflets upon nature-study issued by Purdue 

 University, the number of schools presenting the subject was 

 very greatly increased. These leaflets, twenty-five in number, 

 also served to give definiteness and purpose to the work, and at 

 least indicated possible pedagogical values. While these leaflets 

 were open to criticism from many view points, their influence 

 upon nature -study work in Indiana has been very great and has 

 proved permanent. 



Somewhat later still, courses in nature-study, under the direc- 

 tion of the writer, were offered by the Winona Summer School 

 and Assembly and were veiy largely attended. These courses 

 were based upon the belief that, if nature-study had any place in 

 the schools, it had that place because it contributed in a very 

 definite and clearly cut way to the symmetrical intellectual 

 development of the child. Out of this belief grew the notion that 

 nature-study was not a body of knowledge and that, therefore. 

 the material was to be regarded as incidental, the intellectual 

 development or mental attitude constituting the real center of 

 the work. The contribution of nature-study to the intellectual 

 symmetry of the child was assumed to be the development of the 

 perceptive powers. In spite of various vigorous criticisms of 

 this view, the writer still holds firmly to the opinion that this 



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