vinal] NATURE-STUDY IN RHODE ISLAND 257 



The Chemistry teacher has recently built a house near the Roch- 

 ambeau Avenue Field. Every time he goes out to walk he brings 

 ferns, small hemlocks, etc., home in his pocket. His neighbors 

 laugh at him. By and by they will come around to see how he got 

 such a beautiful lawn. His problem is to make shrubs and beau- 

 tiful flowers grow where broom sedge and sorrel grew before. 



The school secretary has bought a run-down farm in New Hamp- 

 shire and spends her spare time on the many problems which are 

 involved. 



The Eighth Grade teacher has bought an automobile and wishes 

 that the psychology teacher would give some common sense about 

 automobiles. 



This small twig is covered with scale insects. I broke it off a 

 basswood tree which grows on the school grounds. If that insect 

 becomes a serious menace to the beauty of the school grounds it 

 furnishes a problem. I do not know its name. I do not know all 

 about its life history. What an excellent chance for teacher and 

 pupils to take hold of a real problem. 



These teachers are getting a practical education. Running a 

 furnace, beautifying a lawn, improving a run-down farm, driving 

 an automobile, overcoming insect pests, are problems of Nature- 

 study and Science that you and I are meeting. We are learning 

 them in spite of our education. Many learn real teaching in the 

 evening schools. Our education has been first technique and then 

 using a small part of it ; the education of the next generation should 

 be first the need and then the technique. That was the meth- 

 od of Franklin, Galileo, Archimedes and so on back. They felt 

 the need of certain things and went to work on those problems. 

 Professor Thorndike has written an interesting article in the Sci- 

 entific Monthly, for September, on "Science in the Middle Ages." 

 The problem followed by the technique has been the method of 

 scientific discovery. 



The studying of these problems is called the project method. 

 A round table was recently held at the Salem Normal School to 

 discuss this method. They expected about a dozen people and 

 about fifty came. This is a live question. There is an article in 

 the January number of the Teachers' College Record, by Professor 

 Woodhull on "Projects in Science," and another on the "Elements 

 of Practical Arts for General Education," by Professor Bigelow. 

 We can have individual projects and school or grade projects. 



