THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE IN 



ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 



Published monthly expect June, July and August. Subscription price, including mem- 

 bership in the American Nature Study Society $1.50 per year (.nine issues). Canadian post- 

 age 10 cents extra, foreign postage, 20 cents extra. 



Editorial 



Nature-Study Examinations 



Examinations during the processes of education should be to the 

 pupils a joy and an uplift ; unfortunately they are too often a horror 

 and a degradation. Especially is the latter influence regrettable, 

 for when a pupil thinks only of passing an examination rather than 

 of the subject itself and its mastery, the result is a degradation of 

 intellect and of spirit as well. In the ideal school of the future 

 pupils will eagerly examine themselves because they will find it a 

 pleasure and a help to do so. Then the examination will be an 

 inspiration instead of an expiration of interest in the subject, — a 

 feeling that after an examination is successfully passed that there is- 

 no need of remembering or thinking about the subject again. 



Nature-Study is particularly susceptible to spoliation by routine 

 examinations. The value of this study can never be measured by 

 such means; the only real test of it is the continued voluntary 

 interest of the pupil in the different phases of outdoor life and an 

 eagerness to see and understand more and more. However, there 

 are certain tests for facts ascertained which the pupils find inter- 

 esting and helpful. Identification of species may be played like a 

 game. For instance, in identifying trees by the leaves; after the 

 leaves have been studied, a miscellaneous collection of leaves may 

 be tagged each with a number up to fifty ; each pupil should write 

 fifty numbers down the left margin of a blank sheet of paper; then 

 the leaves may be passed around and their names as identified by 

 the pupils placed opposite the corresponding numbers; then let 

 each pupil mark his own paper and compute his own grade. This 

 exercise results always in a keener interest in the identification of 

 leaves and invariably provides a pleasurable half hour for the class. 

 Nuts and fruits may be identified in the same manner. Competi- 

 tions in identifying bird species during the spring migration may 

 also be played like a game with an ornithologist umpire to decide 



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