..„,HTKsi WEATHER RECORDS IN THE LOWER GRADES 271 



muni signities a day that "got warmer all the time until noon 

 and then it got colder all the rest of the day." When the ele- 

 ments of the graph have been mastered by individual practice 

 in plotting curves from original data, a printed weather blank 

 for the week may be given to each pupil, on which data are 

 recorded daily, while the summary and graph are made out on the 

 following Monday. Classes in fourth and fifth grades will 

 profit from such records maintained for one or more months, — 

 not too long, and preferably in the winter, when outdoor studies 

 are less insistent. The average temperature for the week is a 

 desirable datum where mathematical advancement allows. 



A "weekly weather book" form prepared and used by the 

 writer is given on the four preceding pages. Directions for its 

 use are found on the fourth page. A more detailed "monthly 

 weather book" involving additional observations, including 

 barometer readings, is used in the upper grades. 



At the Nature-Study Conference held at the University 

 of Illinois last spring, Prof. C. S. VanDeusen, of Bradley Poly- 

 technic Institute, Peoria, presented his cooperative plan for in- 

 troducing manual training into the one-teacher rural schools. 

 Briefly, his proposition is that twenty-five schools shall combine 

 to employ a supervisor who shall plan the course, provide mater- 

 ial, have general care of the equipment, provide typewritten 

 instructions, and personally direct the work, visiting each school 

 once a week, at the rate of five schools daily, allowing one hour 

 for travel between .schools. The estimated cost per school is 

 $60.00. "I believe," says Mr. VanDeusen, "the farmers would 

 pay that much in order that their colts might become better 

 horses, and I also believe they will do that much in order that 

 their boys may become better men." Where consolidation is 

 out of the question, this cooperative plan distributes simple 

 equipment among many schools and transports the supervisor 

 instead of the pupils. Mr. VanDeusen exhibited the model 

 equipment which he has devised, and at the conclusion of the 

 conference he presented it, in the name of his institution, to the 

 rural equipment museum of the department of Agricultural 

 Education of the University of Illinois. 



