388 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN SCIENCE. 



Locate and map the streams, hills, outcrops of rock, and other 

 prominent physical features, also the roads, farm lines, and 

 houses of the neighborhood or district you are intending to 

 study. In this work school children and their parents can ren- 

 der material aid. The children should make maps for themselves; 

 in no way can map drawing be made more interesting and prac- 

 tical than when familiar ground is made the subject of study. 

 While the map is in process of construction other work may be in 

 progress. Perhaps the most important group of material phe- 

 nomena affecting man is the one called the weather or climate. 

 Many of these phenomena and their relations can be observed, 

 and some idea of future manifestations can be derived, from an 

 intelligent knowledge of the present. It is one of the latest deduc- 

 tions of science that it pays to collect and study " weather saws,'* 

 to observe and note the relations of sunshine and cloud, wind, 

 rain, etc. We have in the barometer an artificial weather glass, 

 but among plants and animals there are many natural barome- 

 ters or weather indicators. Cultivate the powers of observation 

 by noting the aspects of the weather, and requiring the children to 

 do the same; observe which way the wind blows, morning, noon 

 and night; whether the day was clear, cloudy or rainy; any 

 marked changes of temperature during the day or night should 

 be noted, and the observations of each day should be made a 

 matter of record. Collect " weather saws " and study them, some 

 may be fanciful, but many will be found to stand on a scientific 

 basis. In connection with this work note the habits of plants 

 and animals that appear to relate to climate, also study the 

 weather predictions from Washington and compare them with 

 your own observations. 



In winter corn and beans may be grown and each studied in dif- 

 ferent stages, gaining ideas of the seed embryo, cotyledons, ordi- 

 nary leaves, etc., and noting the distinctions between the great 

 classes of exogenous and endogenous plants. Much also may be 

 learned from the study of the various house plants so common 

 everywhere. Make a list of the different trees and shrubs of the 

 neighborhood, studying carefully the peculiarities that distin- 



