132 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [7:5— May, 1911 



the experimental work will be assigned in the school period to- 

 be carried on or performed out of school hours, the results to be 

 reported and discussed on the following or some other day sub- 

 sequent to the assignment. To illustrate, the class may be con- 

 currently observing the germination of seeds, the comparison of 

 the dog and the cat, the effects of each wind upon the weather, the 

 building of a bird's nest and the digging of a drain taking place 

 near the schoolhouse. An observation or experiment proposed in 

 each of two or three or all of these studies yesterday may be 

 taken up today. Some of them may occupy but a minute or two 

 while another may nearly fill the time. 



It will be interesting to hear from a teacher who is disap- 

 pointed with the results after seriously making an intelligent at- 

 tempt to give nature-study a reasonable time and a fixed place on 

 the program. 



WHAT NATURE-STUDY DOES FOR THE CHILD AND FOR THE 



TEACHER 



By ANNA B. COMSTOCK, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 



When the first attempts to introduce nature-study into the 

 schools were made, there were many prophesies favorable and 

 unfavorable as to what would happen to teacher and pupil if this 

 study of nature should finally become established. In looking 

 back over the evidence that has reached us at Cornell University, 

 it is interesting to note which of these prophecies have failed 

 and which have been fulfilled. 



WHAT NATURE-STUDY DOES FOR THE CHILD 



One of the first and foremost of the prophecies of the croak- 

 er was that nature-study would so surfeit the child that when 

 he came in later years to study science he would hate it. And this 

 might have been true if elementary science and nature-study had 

 been identical. It is, however, a well accepted fact in schools 

 where nature-study is best taught that the pupils are eager for 

 their science in the high school. Moreover, in some schools we 

 know, the nature-study pupils are so far in advance of those who 

 have not thus been favored that separate classes for them in 

 the sciences have been necessary. 



Another bit of evidence has come to us from many quarters 

 that nature-study, more than most studies, cultivates the child's 



