PREFACE 



This field and laboratory guide in biological nature-study is the outcome 

 of many years' experience in preparing teachers to handle nature-study in 

 the grades and biology in the secondary schools. It is intended primarily 

 for the use of students who are preparing to teach this work and of teach- 

 ers who are already at it. It does not attempt systematically to cover the 

 field of biology but merely to deal with those groups of plants and animals 

 that are of most interest to pupils. 



Those phases of the subject-matter have been selected that lend them- 

 selves best to project and problem teaching, that develop appreciation of 

 the commonplace environment, and that make for social efficiency on the 

 part of the pupil. It is hoped that the book will prove helpful to that 

 large and increasing group of teachers, both actual and prospective, who are 

 earnestly trying to use in the schools that scientific method and accumulated 

 knowledge so important in modern life. Further, it is hoped that through 

 the teachers it will serve those boys and girls who, by acquaintance with 

 nature, will come to adjust themselves more intelligently to their environ- 

 ment, use the forces of the universe more effectively, and be happier in their 

 enlarged outlook. 



ELLIOT R. DOWNING 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

 THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 

 October i, 1918 



