12 2 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE W [5:5— may, 1909 



of The Nature-Study Review has more than once intimated 

 that the journal was not for the discussion of biological lessons 

 alone; but all the illustrative lessons actually worked out by 

 Professor McMurry are of the biological sort and the writer has 

 searched in vain for any articles in The Review dealing with the 

 problem of elementary physical science in the grammar school. 



Some time ago the editor of this journal sent out a general 

 invitation to teachers to send in reports of work actually done 

 along nature-study lines. For over a year the writer has been 

 experimenting surreptitiously with a so-called geography class 

 made up of a rather heterogeneous group of eighth-grade pupils 

 in grammar school and first-year students in high school, and 

 teachers from country schools who were with us for a term or two. 

 Lessons illustrated with very inexpensive apparatus have been 

 given, choosing such subjects as the way to fight fire, how we 

 keep warm, the "why" of the kitchen pump, and the compass 

 needle. In some cases those with experience in teaching have 

 presented a lesson to the rest of the class. 



So far as we have been able to observe the results have been very 

 gratifying, as shown by subsequent work both in the physical 

 geography and physiology and in the regular chemistry and 

 physics classes. One enterprising young man has been giving 

 lectures illustrated with home-made apparatus to teachers' 

 institutes. During the past year, one young woman who has had 

 our regular physics course has been giving weekly lessons on air- 

 pressure to her class in one of the intermediate grades, beginning 

 with the bottle which cannot be filled with ink if the funnel fits 

 the mouth too tightly and ending with the barometer. She 

 reports an interest on the part of the children which has made 

 the work delightful. With the exception of the barometer, a 

 glass model of a pump and a glass funnel, the outlay has been 

 practically nothing, the materials being such as can be had for 

 nothing or borrowed from the homes of the children. 



I am inclined to think that such lessons offer some advantage 

 over those of a biological nature. Something happens, and that 

 always appeals to the heart of a child. Moreover, it is possible 

 for the whole class to see what happens and to see it at once. In 

 proving that water evaporates faster from sand than from loam, 

 the pupils must take the teacher's word for it, if he proves that a 

 tumbler of wet sand loses weight faster than one of wet loam, and 



