292 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [8 :8— Nov., 1912 



After seven years of trial with steadily increasing success, 

 we think we are doing things worth while in botany and zoology, 

 and they are so simple it is strange they have not been thought of 

 before. The following brief outline of the work is given and 

 must not be taken seriously by teachers who are unwilling to do 

 extra work or to learn something new. But to those who feel 

 that "the day I cease to learn, I cease to teach," they are offered 

 gratis. 



Many of our great scientists agree that the desire to collect 

 things is innate in a healthy child. And Darwin says "I cannot 

 stomach a grown man collecting stamps." Be this as it may, we 

 take advantage of this "collecting mania" and conjure with it in 

 our work. In botany we collect leaves, seeds and woods. The 

 many hours spent and the ingenuity developed in fixing up these 

 collections are nothing short of marvelous. "Where did you get 

 them?" and "How did you ever fix it so nice?" are often heard 

 in the biological rooms. In zoology we each make a little cigar 

 box collection of insects, beginning in September and one of shells 

 about a month later. As far as we know, we are the only high 

 school which does this. 



The insects are caught, killed, pinned and classified into orders 

 and genera. Their life histories are studied as far as possible, 

 and the facts the boys and girls learn "on the side" in this kind 

 of work far outnumber those emphasized in the class. The little 

 "bug houses" are taken home and fondly cherished. 



But when it comes to the "shell game" we simply go crazy ! 

 And if you think differently, just come in some morning an hour 

 before school, or stay two hours afterward, and see who's there. 

 Each cigar box is partitioned into spaces about one inch 

 square, this work bringing us into "correlation" with the manual 

 training department. And the girls and boys, too, who do not 

 take manual training think the man down there is just lovely. 



The pupils collect all the common land and fresh-water forms 

 obtainable here and thus learn in a practical way the habitat of 

 the "dim, dreaming life of the snail." And it is surprising how 

 they find things which the teacher has overlooked — Pyramidulas 

 and Valvatas in Washington Park and Vallonias almost in the 

 shadow of the schoolhouse. 



Then we write to friends at the sea coast, and also to dealers, 

 for marine species. And when we have a box full and each 

 specimen on its bed of white cotton, covered with a nicely fitting 

 glass and the names on inside of cover, we have something to 

 exhibit to our iriends and our friends' friends, even to the third 



