CALDWELL] NATURE-STUD Y IN ELEMENTAR Y SCHOOLS 



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pupils want to know more of the detailed and coherent facts which 

 relate to nature's processes such as are associated with the life- 

 round of insects, birds, frogs, plants, rivers, valleys, hills, etc. 

 Consequently during this period fewer topics but more intensive 

 studies are used. In the sixth grade a considerable portion of the 

 work attempts to focus previous and present studies upon personal, 

 community and civic hygiene, since this seems to be the period 

 of development when such studies may have the largest effect in 



Fig. 7. Grade Children on a Tramp Through Good Tree Country. 



establishing and rationalizing individual habits. Following the 

 sixth grade, the studies relate to the processes and materials of the 

 industrial, economic and social environment. This more intensive 

 study requires still further reduction in the number of topics 

 studied. 



It is recognized throughout that the course in nature-study must 

 be based upon concrete contact with the nature materials, and that 

 the work cannot have the subject-matter coherence and exactions 

 which are requisite in any well-organized science. 



It must also be recognized that there must be underlying pur|)ose 

 in the work, gradation and progressive nature of materials, and a 

 coherence in method of teaching which develop the sy^irit of inquiry, 



