EDITORIAL 



In the existing order of things it is not surprising that pros- 

 pective teachers in elementary schools should be asked to pass 



an examination in formal science rather 

 Examination Questions than in nature-study. In fact, where 

 for Nature-Study nature-lore has been neglected in child- 



Teachers hood, and where later instruction has 



been technical and non-environmental, it 

 is more than likely that a physics text presents no greater diffi- 

 culties than are inherent in a first class "bird calendar". There 

 is a tendency on the part of examining officers to modify the 

 long prevalent type of examination in botany, zoology, human 

 physiology, and physics (for elementary teachers), injecting an 

 element more suggestive of the field in which the applicant is to 

 work. A set of questions from an examination recently given 

 by a county superintendent of schools may be of interest here. 



botany 

 i. Define fungus, alga, pollen tube, Angiosperm, symbiosis. 



2. Make sketches showing life history of a common mold. 



3. Explain how "clover enriches the soil". 



4. Discuss inter-relations of flowers and insects. 



5. Name five important families of flowering plants, with three 



examples of each. 



6. Name the ten indispensable elements of plant food. 



7. Discuss transpiration. 



9. Draw diagram of a flower, and tell function of each flower 



part 

 10. State the chief contribution to botany of each of the follow- 

 ing men: Linnaeus, Darwin, Pasteur, Gray, DeVries. 



ZOOLOGY 



1. Define homology, mutation, Arthropoda, ecology, phylogeny. 



2. Sketch dorsal outline of the crayfish. 



3. How is an animal "classified"? Illustrate. 



4. Discuss "the immortality of the protozoa." 



5. By what method is a breed of animals "improved" by man? 



6. The mosquito in relation to disease. 



7. Of our common birds, name six permanent residents, three 



migrants and three winter residents. 



8. Discuss vestigial organs in the human body. 



9. Name three common breeds each of cattle, chickens, dogs 



and horses. 



